Continuum
by Plesiosaur
Summary: A sequel to Foundlings! Time will pass whether you're ready for it to or not and children will grow a little more each day. AU bubbline family. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Sequel Time! Did you miss me? I missed you! This is a sequel to Foundlings, if you haven't read that yet go read it first or this won't make sense!**

 **Like Foundlings this is gonna be a little OC heavy and contain some moderately graphic lady-sexing. You know the drill; not down with that? Then this isn't the sequel for you. This fic is also gonna cover a larger time frame than Foundlings did and may not be completely Stakes compliant, I'm currently wrestling with various bits of plot. But luckily Stakes didn't establish anything I can't sorta retcon around. Also it was absolutely bloody amazing! Ahhhhhh I loved it!**

 **So anyway, Content Warning: ummm not a lot. Some jealousy, an OC, penguins.**

* * *

There was something wrong, something so terribly wrong, with that day.

The weather was perfect, almost mocking him with its natural beauty. It had been clear and sunny all day despite the first chill hint of the fast approaching winter in the air. And now the western sky was a blaze of sunset colours, golds riotously streaked against the reds and pinks and oranges that blended to lavenders and blues and eventually indigoes and finally into the soft twinkle of distant stars if you looked far enough away to the east. Looking to the east was easy from this high up. Looking anywhere was easy. Especially the ground, that was just a matter of tilting your head downwards from your hiding place.

Perhaps the wrongness came from the unusual amounts of activity that the locals had been engaging in lately, buying pretty hats and new suits and dresses, haircuts and facials and their Sunday best all carefully pressed and hung out to air like they were trying to dress the town square itself in preparation for some enormous party. It was _wrong_ , they were joyful and celebrating and it was all so very very wrong.

The wrongness, he decided after a few minutes of thought, came from him. He was not in the right place, he was up here surveying it all like some glorious eagle lord and not down there accepting everyone's praise and congratulations. Someone else was doing that, it felt unreal. It made his brain ache to think of it, to see that stupid lazy smile on those unworthy lips. It hurt more than anything he'd ever known when the stray sunbeam caught the matching light blue stone on that undeserving hand and glinted it back up to wink spitefully at him. It shouldn't be only him that was hurt by the sunbeam but somehow that charlatan even managed to evade that weakness today and it was all so unnatural and gut wrenchingly _wrong-_

He stopped thinking about it as the deep fury caused a wave of nausea to roll across his stomach. Breathed deep in the clean air until his lungs felt fresh and cold, squeezed his eyes shut just like Dad had taught him for these exact situations. Ripping his eyes away from the crowd below he hunched down again behind a parapet and waited. _Won't be long now._

His eyes slid to the beautiful new crossbow he'd bought. Lacquered layers of horn and wood, a poundage so high he'd struggled to wind it back even with the winch attachment. Cross-hairs, arm rests, it was a thing of beauty. No way it would miss his mark, not when he was on a mission of love. He petted it fondly, crooning softly to it. When this was all finished he'd keep it on display above his throne. Probably great heroes would want to touch it for luck before leaving on dangerous missions. But they couldn't use it, it was _his_ and he kept his property close. The bow was going to prove that point for him on other matters of property too.

One shot, because if he missed he was dead. One shot would be all it took.

He closed his eyes for a moment, resting his head back against the rough frosting of the battlements and letting his mind's eye see the future. Royal balls, coronations, decrees, and such lovely soft beauty smiling adoringly into his eyes each night as he lead her to bed and-

"Hullo. Sorry to interrupt just before you get to the really filthy bit. But I'm gonna have to either arrest you or break your neck, ok?"

There was a muscular bear of man swathed in an enormous dark cloak floating in the air in front of him and twirling his beautiful new crossbow between gigantic gloved fingers. Beneath his hood he had a broad face framed by a fuzzy close-trimmed beard and dirty blonde hair falling to his bulky shoulders. He appeared to be wearing a fancy suit under the cloak, it sat oddly on his large frame.

 _Vampire Guard! Dammit!_

He barely had time to think it before one dark gloved hand was clamped like cold iron across his mouth and the other was hefting him like a grocery bag under the big vampire's arm, his beautiful crossbow was lying in splinters on the ground and he wanted to scream. He tried to bite the big man and felt his teeth crack against the stone hard muscle of the enormous hand that held his face like a vice.

"Don't try that again unless you really like sucking all your meals through straws." the vampire told him conversationally, drifting down slowly from the back of the tower towards the still distant ground. "What's your name, son? Nah just think it, I can hear you. Telepath." he added, showing a wide pale grin from the gloom under his hood that was nothing but needle sharp teeth and the promise of pain.

 _I'm Braco the Hero and going to hurt you for this!_

"Braco, huh? Can't say I've heard of you."

 _I'm supposed to marry the princess! I was born for it!_

"Is that a fact? Well see my boss, the Vampire Queen, she disagrees. She's gonna marry the princess, ooh any minute now I'd imagine. And you're gonna sit in a dungeon for a good long time and think about what a naughty lad you've been. Yeah? Yeah, good. Assassinating the queen is something that hundreds of the very best vampires tried. They're all dead from the trying. You really think some pipsqueak like you had a chance? How old are you anyway?"

 _I'm almost fifteen! Your queen is a dirty thief and she stole my bride!_

"So, fourteen then. Yeah, I'll level with you. I don't know her very well but even if the princess wasn't marrying the most awesome lady I've ever met I highly doubt she'd be interested in the contents of some spotty fourteen year old's stanky pants. No man don't even, I can smell your nasties from here. Lucky there's plenty of soap in the dungeon. Well, let's get you handed over, I can't be late. I'm the best man." he added with a conspiratorial wink.

They touched down in front of a crowd of waiting Banana Guards and Braco was swiftly handcuffed. As he was led away the vampire streaked off, back over the palace walls and into the waiting courtyard. A moment later the music of a wedding march swelled and the crowd let out a collective sigh, quite possibly at their first glance of the princess in her beautiful dress. Braco was led away with bitter tears staining his pimply cheeks.

...

And then the vows were exchanged and the rings and finally the kiss and they were married. Just like that. Afterwards Marceline would swear she didn't shed a tiny tear but Stefan who was standing by her elbow and saw the whole thing and heard her thoughts, he knew differently.

"And where the hell did you get to just before everything kicked off? Stefan man, you had my heart in my mouth! Figuratively y'know."

Stefan grinned broadly and turned to face his queen. Queens, actually. There were technically two of them now. And what a sight they were.

He'd never in a thousand years have pinned Marceline for a flowers in her hair and glittery wedding dress type; he thought he'd have died and his ashes blown off in the breeze centuries before the world would see her voluntarily wearing white. But there she was, looking impossibly lovely in a simple and very white dress, fitted lace with tiny diamonds sewn in swirls along the trim. Almost but not quite the same as her new wife's, a higher neckline in the same fabric with a shorter skirt designed for dancing and showing off shapely pink legs. Shame about the smell of sunscreen that rolled off them both, but it couldn't be helped. For some reason Marceline didn't want to get married under a giant parasol and had opted instead to slather herself in super strong UV block, despite holding the ceremony at sunset.

"Had a bit of trouble up on one of the towers. Some kid with a weird hero complex seemed to think that the way to win your lady for himself is by sticking a crossbow bolt through her new wife's heart right after the 'I do's are finished. Anyway he's the Banana Morons' problem now, little punk tried to bite me and shattered his teeth. Imbecile." Stefan snorted remembering the shock and horror that had coursed through the scruffy boy's mind when his bite had cracked against the big vampire's fist, it was the funniest thing he'd seen in decades. Living alone on a desert island would do that, though.

"Huh, well so long as he's out of harm's way. Well done you for not killing him though. And thanks for your excellent best-manning! We're looking forward to your speech."

Stefan's grin slackened. He hadn't had long to plan it since he'd only been summoned from his self-imposed exile a week ago, but his speech was a source of deep stress for him. What to say to a room mostly full of snooty royal mortals? About Marceline and her bride who was lovely but that he'd only just met a few days before? It was daunting. And so much he couldn't say, so much he wanted to but didn't have words for because his issues with seeing people be happy were the exact reasons he'd exiled himself in the first place. He felt the shape of Bubblegum's thoughts half a second before she opened her mouth, looking around from waving to guests and noticing his discomfort. Wow that woman thought fast.

"You don't have to give a speech if you feel uncomfortable with it. It's not like you're the only best man today. I know for a fact that Peppermint Butler can speak more than enough for two if that's what you need."

"No, it's fine. I don't think it'll be a long one though." he replied carefully, letting his hand slip into his pocket to gently brush against the cool links of an old silver chain coiled there. Stefan was glad he was the only telepath in the room.

"Right then, let's get to it!" Marceline grinned at them, totally missing the slightly wistful twist of Stefan's voice. So like his queen, wrapped up in her own joy. It was hard not to be wrapped up in it too though when she exuded happiness so intoxicating that he couldn't let his mind stay on regrets for long. Another good reason to be exiled, really.

"Sure, lead the way then." he agreed amicably, executing a sharp little bow and letting a dapper smile slide back into place.

Guests were already taking their seats as they entered the palace's grand dining hall. The ceiling was hung with glittering decorations and lanterns, lighting up the gloom at the top of the building like a false sky of huge stars. It had been built to accommodate the greater part of Ooo's royalty and that was pretty much who was there now, dressed up in their finery and more than just a few experiencing greater or lesser amounts of jealousy towards one or both brides. Stefan could also feel the shifting pulse of their less than charitable thoughts about him too but he bounced them off his mental shields and away. One thing to lower his guard specifically to threats against the newlyweds, another entirely to let every stray negative that flickered his way kill his flow.

He was trying so damn hard to stay happy for his queen. He took his seat and nodded down the table to Peppermint Butler. That guy was mostly alright but his thoughts were so shady. No threat to the queen though, which was the only reason he was still alive after Stefan had sampled the darkness swirling in the back of the little candy man's subconscious. Shady, definitely one to watch. But loyal to a fault where Marceline and Bubblegum were concerned.

Hunson's father-of-the-bride speech was... interesting. Despite being pre-approved by both brides and heavily edited by Marceline she still ended up blushing furiously and glaring cold death at her father, not that he paid her embarrassment any attention. The outline of her thoughts was entirely murderous, furious that he was telling his hilarious story about the time she'd mangled her tongue trying to chew gum. Pretty funny, Stefan thought. Ironic too given she'd married a woman made entirely from sugar and gum and there was more than likely going to be a little chewing later on when the guests had left. Stefan appreciated Hunson's sense of humour, even if his daughter didn't. And he'd kindly agreed not to eat any souls today either so that was a bonus too. Hunson seemed an alright guy, once you got past him basically being Satan. But that was an old world concern, a word with no meaning or significance anymore.

Once the Lord of Evil had finished and regained his seat Stefan let his fingers slip into his pocket and brush the heavy chain again for luck before he floated up, drawing every eye in the room. Time to give his speech.

"So most of you don't know me, I'm Stefan Hallvard. I am the third and last surviving member of the Royal Vampire Guard," he tipped a smile to Zoe and Matilda, who were waving furiously from their corner of the table, "and obviously I'm pretty annoyed about being left out of all the action earlier in the year. I hear you had quite the adventure without me." he paused politely for the ripple of laughter to die down. Only the royals could think that almost being killed by the ancient embodiment of evil destruction was a polite joke. "Anyway, Marceline asked me to be her best man because let's face it, I'm the best man she knows." another ripple of laughter and a couple of annoyed glances from some of her other male guests, "but I'm also one of the people she's known longest. We go way back, we've had a lot of adventures together."

Stefan paused, trying to squash back down the memory of some of those 'adventures'. Adventures that ended in blood, in cut off gurgling screams, in the hot ashes of dead vampires. Adventures that had ended in nightmares. The silver chain felt heavy against his hip, a warm weight that shifted restlessly in time with him.

"A thousand years is a long time. Plenty of time to find people, lose people again. Plenty of time to know exactly what and who you want. I'm so glad for my queen that she has finally gotten exactly that. And now we are honoured to have two queens. So raise your glasses, to the queens!" he raised his own glass high and the assembled guests chorused "The queens!" back to him, most less enthusiastically than Zoe and Matilda.

"Like I said, a thousand years is a long time. And there are plenty of long lost faces I would love to see staring back at me right now, plenty of eyes that will never open again whose presence we sorely miss today. So while I will ask you all to raise your glasses to the happy couple," he continued, holding his own glass up, "I would also like to propose another toast. To absent friends."

"Absent friends." the guests murmured in loose unison.

Perhaps it wouldn't make sense to anyone else but the other vampires in the room. That didn't matter, so long as his queen and comrades understood, that was all Stefan wanted. He nodded and smiled and took his seat again, only half listening to the rest of the speeches and sucking perfunctorily at the plate of ruby red apple slices he was served in lieu of a wedding breakfast.

As soon as the food was finished he excused himself with a laugh and a grin that didn't meet his grey eyes and slid off unseen outside, drifting up almost unconsciously under the stars and pulling the chain out of his pocket.

Before he'd been Turned, less than a century before the bombs fell and the world ended, Stefan had been a deeply a religious man. He couldn't say that even a shred of faith remained after all he'd seen but he did still miss the ritual of praying with the rosary beads he'd been gifted from a travelling priest more than a thousand years before. Now he had the silver chain instead and it was somehow both better and worse, it sat comfortingly and heavy in his palm as he slowly threaded the links one by one through his big fingers. For a while the only noise was the soft _clink clink_ of metal on metal, then he spoke in a low voice.

"Miss you, buddy. You should've seen the queen today, she looked so beautiful. Wore white and everything. You'd have been all over her, making dirty jokes and trying to catch a glimpse of cleavage. I told you, she just doesn't see you that way. Always told you that and you never did believe me, did you? Always thought you'd have a chance one day. Well sorry old friend, she's married now. To a lady and everything, a real nice lady. I'd be jealous but you knew that was never how I rolled, right? You knew, I always knew you knew."

He paused, looking up at the stars and pushing his heart to give a couple of painful, cathartic squeezes just because he could. His throat felt tight. Even after all those centuries it still hurt to talk to Marco.

Beautiful, violent, terrifying Marco with his wolf's smile and so much blood soaking his strong hands. The way his bronze coloured eyelashes fluttered as he slept, the way his delicious aquamarine eyes had widened in terror as Stefan's big hands closed around his skull and _pulled_ -

The chain slipped from his fumbling fingers and fell into darkness, but there was no distant _clink_ of it hitting the ground. A moment later Zoe was drifting in front of him, periwinkle cocktail dress turned a greying silver in the starlight.

"Be more careful with that, man. Marco would've been heartbroken to know you'd thrown it away." she murmured as she handed it back, cold pale fingers closing around his bigger ones.

Stefan closed off his telepathy to her thoughts, the sympathy was too hard to take. But Zoe's calming effect was instant if somewhat unwelcome because dammit he _wanted_ to be alone and miserable. He'd always taken some comfort from knowing that Marceline at least was someone who understood his pain, but now she was dancing cheek to cheek with her beautiful new wife and any kindred misery she'd felt was in the long distant past.

Zoe gazed at him with sad and troubled eyes. She didn't speak again, it was easier for them both. Marco had been close to her too, like a little brother. And then Tilda was there beside them. She was never far from her lover anyway. She scooted up to Stefan's other side and let her little hands wind around his waist as far as she could reach then pull him into a hug. The three of them would forever and always be missing Marco. Because there'd been four Vampire Guards, one for each compass point around their queen, watching for danger in any direction. And now there were three.

"We miss him too." Tilda murmured, squeezing him hard. Stefan just nodded in reply, unable to speak.

...

Stefan was not the only person to finish the night in a less than festive mood. After the cake was cut and his obligatory piece eaten Ice King took himself home. He was not in any mood to stay for the dancing and nobody would miss him anyway. Off he flew into the night, heading for the cold comfort of his own kingdom and the crippling loneliness of his empty cave and empty bed. Oh sure Marceline had seemed really happy to see him, he wasn't entirely certain why but it lifted his heart to see her toothy grin when he congratulated her after the lovely ceremony. But once the greetings had been concluded he'd been under strict orders not to come anywhere near any of the assembled princesses, he'd been assigned some young Rainicorn nephew of Emerald the Hero to ensure he kept his promise.

Not that any of the women in the room held his attention anyway. Not when he was so dejected.

"Well, that's it." he told Gunther as the little penguin waddled happily towards him. "She's married. Joined forever to someone else. Off the market. Unavailable. Espoused. Paired off. She didn't even look at me once during the ceremony."

"Wenk." Gunther agreed, nuzzling under his arm as he sat down and letting a loud warm and incredibly fishy fart loose against his master's armpit. Ice King reached up and scratched the little penguin's head contemplatively. He supposed if he hadn't have felt so depressed he might have been rather annoyed about getting fishy penguin fart on his best robes but honestly he just didn't care.

"You know what though? I can't even find it in myself to hate Marceline. She's a great gal, excellent musician too. Nearly as good as I am. If Bubblegum can't be mine then at least she's got the next best thing, right? And they have those beautiful orphans they adopted together, a real little family. Those are some lucky orphans."

For some reason his beard was wet. Oh, that thing was happening again where his eyes leaked water without his consent. That often happened when he thought about families or weddings, or for some reason about Marceline and how she was so happy now. It perplexed him but he'd long ago given up on wondering about it. Something his eyes knew that they didn't want to tell the rest of him, he guessed.

"Oh Gunther! If only you were a beautiful lady!" he moaned, blowing his long dribbly nose into his beard and slumping down in the seat.

"Wenk?" Gunther replied, sounding as disturbed as a penguin could.

"Oh stop worrying, Gunther. I couldn't make you into a lady even if I wanted to. I don't have that kind of magic. You know the ice creatures I make don't really have their own minds the way real people do, even if I somehow gave you a woman's body you'd still be a penguin underneath. No Gunther, it's kind of you to offer but you're never going to be my wife."

Gunther let out a relieved fart, a quiet warm one that nevertheless smelled strongly of decaying herring.

Still there was some part of Ice King's brain that wouldn't quite let that thought go. Make a wife for himself instead of stealing one? He'd thought of it in the past but his magic just wasn't the right kind. If he could hoodwink some other wizard into doing it for him then perhaps it might just work, but magic was a tricky thing and there was no guarantee he'd actually get what he'd been aiming for. Then he'd end up stuck with some malformed lump that he didn't want and quite possibly the enmity of whichever wizard he'd tricked into creating her in the first place. Lose/lose situation, desperate as he was that still didn't seem like a good gamble.

His gaze drifted to the empty ice prison on the opposite wall. How many babes had he locked in there? And none of them had stayed. Not one of them had looked at him the way Bubblegum and Marceline had looked at each other today, like they were the only two people in the world. It made his heart ache and his beard grow damp again.

"I'd be a good husband though, wouldn't I?" he asked Gunther morosely. "I'd bring her flowers and cook her dinner, take her to movies and give her foot rubs after a long day. I'm so sick of not knowing what I'm doing wrong."

"Wenk." Gunther agreed softly. "Wenk wenk."

He petted the penguin again and let his mind continue to wander. Maybe he'd play some video games before he went to bed, it wasn't so late and he wasn't really tired yet. He had a new one, a racing game where you could design you dream car and watch a little pixelated mechanic build it right in front of you before you raced it. _If only I could get a mechanic to build me a wife instead of relying on tricky magic._

Something clicked with something else deep within Ice King's head and a light bulb flickered on in his brain. A mechanic for people was a doctor. Or a scientist. A scientist could build people to a specification, no magic required.

The heavy weight of his depression lifted as he thought through his new plans.

"Gunther," he told the little penguin, "get some rest. Tomorrow we've got to build a laboratory!"

"Wenk." Gunther sighed resignedly.


	2. Chapter 2

**How are you enjoying Continuum so far? I hope it doesn't disappoint. This is essentially a transitional story, to link the gap between the end of Foundlings and the beginning of the last story in the trilogy, Full Circle. So there's gonna be a bit less action, less of a structured story in places and more like a lot of snapshots of time passing. At least after the main kick of plot is done, we've got about 18 years of time to cover. Continuum is a lot gentler in places, Full Circle will have a lot of action.**

 **Content Warning: cute family stuff, references to people getting hurt in the past, OCs having conversations with other OCs. Sorry it's so OC heavy.**

* * *

 _"A week in the mountains  
A week by the sea  
Jacob and Finn  
And Phoebe makes three"_

Phoebe laughed hard as the little song finished and blew a fiery raspberry at Finn who reached over to smack her on the back of her flickering blue head. Jake dropped the slime doll he'd been playing with and stretched his arms across to grab both their wrists before they could escalate to full blown war and actually hurt each other.

"Hey now, that's not very nice of you! Finn, you don't hit people just because they're rude, ok? And Phoebe, don't be rude to your brother. Good boy, Jake." Marceline added, reaching down and rubbing the puppy's ears. He smiled adoringly back at her.

"Imma guboy Jake." he informed Finn smugly across their sister's head. Both his siblings blew raspberries at him and all three collapsed back into giggles, temporary hostility forgotten in the face of the enormous hilarity of noises that sounded like farts.

The nursery was still bright despite Marceline having rolled down the blinds as soon as she entered. The midday sunlight made the jungle patterns on their curtains glow green and gold, lighting the whole scene in a soft haze that didn't burn her skin exactly but did tingle a little. She could ignore it easily though, shape shift a few nerve endings away from her more sensitive areas and enjoy some time with the little ones. The kids were in their playpen and she was supposed to be packing to leave in an hour or two but they were just so distractingly cute and they loved it when she sang to them, anyway she was so _happy_ , it was only natural to let that come out as a song-

"Marcy! Are you packing or are you making faces and playing with the babies?" her wife's voice drifted from some distance down the corridor. _Wife._ Wow, that felt even better than _fiancée_ had. She didn't even try to keep the massive grin off her face.

"Playing with the babies!" she called back gleefully.

"Play Momom!" Finn joined in, beating his fist against the side of a little toy drum. Marceline swelled with pride, he was keeping the beat really well. _I taught him that._

"Playing, playing, pla'ing Momomomomomom! Pa pa da da da la!" he sang tunelessly as Jake joined in howling and Phoebe blew jarring discords into the toy harmonica that matched Finn's drum.

A disgruntled pink face appeared around the side of the nursery door, but it softened almost immediately. They were indeed distractingly cute, and Marceline knew for a fact that Bonnie thought she was pretty cute too. She smiled her brightest smile, earning a reluctant smile back in return.

"C'mon, don't make me be the mean Mama." Bonnibel muttered, coming into the room proper. Marcy lifted her arms for a hug and Bonnie neatly placed a stack of tiny clean clothes into them instead, then giggled and kissed her wife on the tip of the nose when Marceline looked offended. _Wife_. Yep, still felt unbelievably great.

"What do you think guys? Think your Mama needs to chill out some?" she called to the kids over their continuing racket, making Bonnie roll her eyes in fond exasperation.

"Yeh! Chill chill chill!" Finn yelled happily, waving his drum in the air along with his fist. Jake howled again and Phoebe joined in with a loud yell that didn't appear to contain any actual words, just very loud sounds.

"You're the worst influence." Bonnie informed Marceline tartly, though she smiled a second later to take the sting out out it.

"Yep, but you love it. That's why you married me!"

"I did? When?"

Marceline rolled her eyes but grinned wider and played along anyway. Bonnibel being playful was a rare and beautiful thing, it should be enjoyed as thoroughly as possible. Especially since her kidnapping, Bonnie had been a little withdrawn and quiet despite her scars fading almost completely away in the intervening months.

"Like, yesterday? You remember that big party we had? And those pretty white dresses? And all the cake and dancing?" she replied, switching her expression back to try to look serious. It was a hard job and after a moment or two she gave up and let the smile that was trying to push its way onto her face back. Honestly if this kept up much longer she was gonna get cramps from being so damn happy all the time.

"Mm, was that you? I didn't recognise you without your gorgeous dress on. Oh wait, now I see it. There's that amazing smile. Yeah I remember you, the really beautiful one." Bonnie replied, tilting her head to one side and examining every inch of her wife's face. _Wife_. Grod was she ever going to stop smiling?

"Flatterer." Marceline murmured, leaning in to give her a thorough kiss.

A second later they broke apart sheepishly as a chorus of "ewwws!" rose from the playpen. Jake had stretched his lips ten times their normal size and was making kissy faces at the other two, making them squeal in delighted horror.

"See? The worst influence." Bonnie said, a slight blush colouring her cheeks. "Come on, guys! We're gonna go have a snack and then it's off to the mountains for holidays. You wanna come on holiday with Mama and Mom?"

The children yelled their enthusiastic agreement and their mothers picked up a baby apiece, letting Jake stretch between them like a giggling scarf, Phoebe reaching up from her Mama's arms to tickle her big brother's tummy.

...

Penguins were a brilliant animal to train as minions, considering the alternatives. Seals were too stupid and polar bears to unpredictable, but penguins had that golden blend of intelligence and trainability without any impractical sense of independent ideas that made them perfect for the Ice King. For example, they excelled at keeping secrets, such as their master building a massive laboratory in the basement of his frozen lair. They were nimble and surprisingly strong, certainly not creatures bound by morality. Excellent minions, but as contractors they left a lot to be desired.

"Put the science equipment here! Where are those test tubes? We need glassware! Lots of shapes of tubes, and some of those burning heating thingies for underneath! Snap to it, Gunther!"

"Wenk!"

Ice King surveyed his work proudly as his minions rushed around building things and organising the various scientific equipment he'd liberated. He'd scoured the land for the last few days looking for things that could be useful before he'd had the brilliant idea of breaking into Bubblegum's laboratory and borrowing her stuff; nobody knew science like she did and she definitely had the equipment to build a person. That annoying fool Lemongrab was proof enough, and as an added bonus he'd found her notebook with all her scientific formula in it, certainly one of those must be the formula for creating life. It wasn't like she was using any of her science stuff now anyway, she was already away on her honeymoon with her new wife.

That used to make him shudder with jealousy but it hurt less and less every time he thought of it now that he was going to build a new wife, a better wife. It was good, Ice King decided. Progress. He was already over her.

He didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it anyway with the close eye he had to keep on his penguin labourers. Especially Gunther, he was trouble.

"Gunther! Don't even think about it! Put those bottles down! You're that close to earning yourself another timeout, mister."

"Wenk _wenk_ ", the penguin replied resentfully, placing the box of assorted glassware down with exaggerated care.

"Oh yes you were about to, I know that look on your face. Don't take an attitude with me, we need to get this fixed up." Ice King replied crossly. "Unless you'd like to go stand in the naughty penguin corner?"

"Weeeeeenk!"

"That's what I thought. Carry that box carefully."

Gunther picked up the box and waddled over to the pretty cabinet they were using to house the glassware. It had formerly contained a rare collection of vintage pre-war champagne but none of the stolen princesses had stayed long enough to enjoy it with him. Ice King rubbed his blue palms together in anticipation; soon he'd have a beautiful wife all of his own to share it with. Gunther shelved the glassware with another restful mutter and a significant look at his king.

But Ice King was already moving away, exclaiming over some new machine that he didn't know the function of. It was large and had wires sticking out of it, it looked impressive. He was sure it could science really hard in expert hands. Once they had the lab set up he was going to go find those expert hands; hopefully before Bubblegum returned from honeymoon and discovered her equipment missing.

"Excellent. It's starting to look like a real science lab! We need to get some bubbly tubes going, set the atmosphere. I almost feel like I could science myself!" Ice King jigged a little from foot to foot, excitement and anticipation overcoming him for a moment and causing him to leap into the air, hovering with his beard like some great bird of prey before he touched back down. "We're nearly there! Penguins, to me!"

They came waddling out of the small spaces around the icy cavern, hooting and wenking to him. All accounted for, he settled down on the frozen floor and arranged the little birds around him in a circle until every beady eye was focussed on him.

"Ok. This is the plan. We finish this lab, get everything set up. Then we need the raw materials. Gunter, you'll take a team of penguins to these locations," he handed over a scrap of paper with a list of places scrawled on it.

"Wenk." Gunther replied, folding it up and tucking it under one podgy flightless wing, nodding sharply to show he understood.

"Good man. We need raw materials to build my new wife from! I want samples from beautiful things, human women, and I want all the softest things you can find. She'll have such soft skin! And perfect hair. Silky and wavy and white like mine! She'll have sapphire eyes that glow like the ocean. Find sapphires!"

"Wenk! Wenk!" the penguins chorused, flapping their useless wings excitedly. "Wenk!"

It seemed the promise of a beautiful new custom-made mistress excited them as much as it did the Ice King; they broke out of the circle formation he'd carefully arranged them in and began tearing around the newly assembled lab, hooting loudly and in the case of Gunther letting loose a string of wet farts that filled the air with a fishy stink so foul it made his king's eyes water.

"You have a stinky booty, mister." Ice King informed the little penguin. "You better learn to hold it it when my wife is finished or we might have to keep you as an outdoor penguin."

"Wenk!" Gunter replied, offended.

...

The special glass of Marceline's sunroom was something Stefan decided it might be worth staying around in the palace for. Maybe, for a little while anyway. Until the queen got home. The first thing he'd done after waving their carriage goodbye was race off to the sunroom to grab his space before the girls woke up and he had to share. He stretched out in mid air, turning lazily so that the warmth was distributed equally over his square shirtless chest. Sunshine was underrated, when it wasn't lethal.

As a wedding present the queen's thoughtful and talented wife had designed and secretly installed a conservatory on the side of one of her many studies, plated in a special kind of glass she'd personally engineered and manufactured to filter out the part of the sun's light that caused a vampire's skin to bubble and char. It was worth the hours of lost sleep and occasional incineration as a test subject to see the look on Marceline's face when she'd gingerly stepped out from under her parasol into the full blaze of the midday sun coming through the roof and remained gloriously unburned. She'd stared rapturously up at the slightly distorted sun for ages, blissfully warm and pain free. It wasn't quite the same as being outside under the actual sun but it was the next best thing, a dusky kind of golden brown light that domed high overhead and made vampire skin tingle in a rather pleasant way rather than burst into flames.

Of all the things he missed from being human Stefan craved the sun most of all. Long ago before his bite he'd spent the brief weeks of summer under the crystal blue skies of the Arctic; the sun never set and he'd swam tanned and naked in the fjords with his human brothers at midnight. His brothers had been dead for so long now that even their bones would be dust. The quality of light now beating down on his cold pale flesh reminded him of those distant days; wonderful but somehow fragile and transient. Soon the Arctic winter would be back, and there would be nothing but darkness for long months.

It did no good to dwell in distant memories. He shook his head loose of the past and admired the surroundings he was floating in.

The conservatory was beautiful, wide and roomy with a glorious view of the gardens and plushly furnished in deep red and gold fabrics. Stefan knew it was no coincidence that the conservatory resembled the private royal rooms in the Vampire Citadel where Marceline had first taken up the throne in earnest, before it had been reduced to a burned out ruin by the rebels that they'd gone on to slaughter that terrible night. Zoe must have had a hand in the decoration; Matilda didn't have the patience to hang wallpaper and Bubblegum didn't know what the Citadel had looked like. But here it was complete with the huge round floor cushions and glittering golden decorations that he'd last seen centuries ago.

The only real difference was that the heavy drapes that had shut out the awful sun in her private chambers were now pulled back from the huge windows, letting the room flood with light. Decadent, but knowing what he did about the wretched state of Marceline's childhood Stefan had never once criticised her for wanting to surround herself with luxury and beauty. It was strange that she'd lost the taste for it since the Citadel had fallen but she hadn't seemed to mind one bit when the room was gifted to her, he'd felt the thrill of recognition and delight that ran through her.

And if the shape of her thoughts was any indication she was looking forward to replaying some of her more adventurous nights in the Citadel with her new wife. Stefan had hurriedly closed off his telepathy then; what the queen got up to in her personal time was nothing he wanted to know about. Bad enough to walk in on Matilda and Zoe on a regular basis; at least they were equals and not someone who wielded the power of command over him. Whether she liked it or not Marceline would always be his queen and he was bound to obey her as a loyal subject above and beyond the loyalty he felt as her friend. There was just no room at all to hear her bedroom thoughts, although she certainly thought them loudly enough sometimes.

And there he went again back in the past. Seeing the other vampires had turned him into a nostalgic mess.

"You think too hard and your face will stay all scrunched up and boring like that."

He didn't flinch or jump; he'd felt her thoughts long before he'd felt the slight shift of air as she drifted into the room.

"Fuck off, Matilda." he replied lazily, but there was no real venom in the words and she drifted upwards, orbiting him in slow laps and stretching out into the light too.

"D'you think the queen would build me one of these if I asked super politely?" she asked, eyes closed and a look of bliss slung on her delicate elfin features.

"Which one? Marce won't, she'll want to keep all this delightfully non fatal sunshine for herself. Or do you mean the new queen? Bubblegum would build you anything if you used your Talent and turned her brain to horny mush but I can't say whether you'll be alive to enjoy it for long after Marceline found out you put the sex whammy on her wife. Wife. Man that sounds weird. Anyway yeah Bubs for sure has a little crush on you. I should know, she's so embarrassed about it I can hear her from the other side of the palace. Honestly Tilda, I don't know what all the women see in you. No chest hair, no muscles. Your sex appeal is a mystery." Stefan finished morosely, looking the petite vampire up and down then sighing dramatically.

"Aww, she has a crush on me? That's cute. I'd say I was looking forward to having fun with that but you're right like always, an angry Marceline is not a thing I want to be responsible for. I had my fill of that when it all kicked off with the Lich." Matilda still had her eyes closed but was looking uncharacteristically serious. Stefan allowed his telepathy to open just a little way more than he had around either of the girls recently, flexing his mental fingers to 'feel' the shape of her thoughts. It had been a very long time since he'd used his Talent around Tilda and for an awful second he worried that maybe he'd forgotten what her mind felt like.

Hot guilt slammed against him like sunlight without the safety filter; Tilda was practically eaten alive with guilt over what had happened. He opened his eyes properly and drifted upright to examine her more closely.

How had he missed it? The gentle lavender aura that usually wreathed her eyes had darkened to a harsh indigo; Matilda wasn't sleeping. Come to think of it, why was she awake now? He was up because he was guarding the palace, Marceline was up because she'd given up being nocturnal completely since her new family were day walkers. But Matilda should be asleep. Why was she seeking his company when she should be curled into Zoe's arms resting peacefully? Stefan had been so caught up in recollection that he hadn't noticed one of his oldest friends was suffering, he'd shut himself off to her thoughts so completely that he'd never even felt it. Shame flooded him; it had been too long since he'd had to consider the feelings of others.

"Tilda, what's wrong?" he asked in his gentlest tone. When Matilda was upset about something she needed careful handling, like the kitten she was so fond of shifting into. It helped that he could feel the shape of her thoughts but she could change so suddenly, flare from the cold depths of sunken depression to towering anger out of nowhere; even Stefan had to tread carefully.

"Suppose you wouldn't believe me if I said it was nothing then?" she asked with an audible sulk in her usual lilting voice. She turned her face from him, features set into a blank porcelain mask that nevertheless showed how exhausted she was if he cared to look for it. Matilda had never mastered Marceline's trick of shape shifting her unwanted facial expressions away.

"No, I wouldn't believe you. Tilda, talk to me. You know you can trust me, right?"

She sighed a little and closed her eyes, tilting her head back up to the sun. In the wavering golden light Stefan could make out the faintest ghost of freckles that had peppered her face before she was Turned and her vampirism had drained the colour from them. He waited patiently, counting in his head. Any second now.

 _-twenty six, twenty seven, twenty- ah, here we go._

"I let them get taken." she finally admitted, barely more than a whisper. "I'm supposed to be a Royal Guard, one of the finest and most exclusive guards in the world. And I let the insane Dog snatch the princes and take them off to be sacrificed to ancient evil, because I was busy getting my rocks off. What's the point in being a powerful immortal if I can't guard two babies in a fortified palace when their kidnapper is already locked up?"

She finished it nearer a scream, guilt and anger rolling off her loudly enough that Stefan couldn't completely shut it out. He stared at her, shoulders hunched and back turned to him as she avoided his gaze again, dainty muscles pulled taut in self loathing. Poor Tilda, she'd always been rather highly strung.

"Hey. Tilda, look at me." Reluctant icy-blue eyes dragged to his face after a tense second, glaring out from beneath her wild red fringe. The big man paused, trying to pick a safe path through the verbal minefield. He let his massive hand rest carefully on her shoulder, squeezing a little to empathise his point.

"You are not the mind reader, I am. And I was hiding on my island, blissfully unaware that anyone might need my services all the time you were here supporting the queen. Yes, Jake and Finn got taken, and Finn got hurt a little. But you didn't hurt him, you didn't know Jake's father was going to break out and kidnap the children. You are not responsible for anyone's actions but your own, yeah? Not even Zoe's."

She looked away, worrying her pale lip between her fangs. A sheen of unshed tears lingered in those startling eyes but Stefan could feel that his words had been well chosen. He waited patiently, still holding her gently in place from turning away again.

"I wish I could have done something more. When that Grimmalk squeezed Finn, I heard his ribs snap. I felt the way his pulse rushed and for a moment I _liked_ it. I wanted to suck him dry, I wanted to make him scream. How can I be a fit Guardian for him when I want to hurt him?"

Ah, there it was. Marceline had asked the girls to act as Guardians for her children if anything ever happened to her and Bubblegum while they were still of an age to require legal guardianship, along with assigning their hero friends as godparents. He'd felt Bubblegum's reluctance to the scheme but he also understood Marceline's reasoning. Vampires could not have children the usual human way, doubly so two female vampires. If the worst happened and Zoe and Matilda were left raising the children they would love them so fiercely that nothing and nobody would ever hurt them ever again. Matilda was an excellent choice of Guardian if you looked past her being undead and permanently glued to Zoe. She had ghosts from her own human past that haunted her, ghosts that would never ever let her hurt a child.

"Matilda, you can't help your nature but you're not a slave to it either. You wanted to hurt him, for a second, when you were in extreme stress and your basic instincts kicked in. But you didn't hurt him, you protected him. That's what a Guardian is supposed to do. Isn't it? He's your prince now, he's as much the Vampire Prince as he is a Candy Prince. And you took him out of danger, you took him to get help. The queen trusted you without a second thought, didn't she?" Matilda nodded, biting her lip again and avoiding his direct gaze.

"Come here." he murmured, spreading his huge arms wide. He'd know this woman for centuries and knew when words weren't needed. Matilda scooted closer and let the big vampire hug her, tension leaking out of her shoulders after a moment or two. "You should go see Zoe. Go wake her up in a fun way, you deserve it." Stefan murmured into her hair after a moment. His comrade, one of his very best friends. He was lucky to have them.

Matilda nodded, the ghost of her old cocky smile sliding back onto her face. He felt the wave of her gratitude at the exact moment she spoke.

"Thanks Stefan. You're the best."


	3. Chapter 3

**Many apologies for the delay in posting this, I blame Christmas sneaking up on me and my birthday being around the corner. That's a valid excuse, right? Also I finally finished the long Real World AU I've been working on and I'm quite proud of it. So expect the first chapter of that tonight too.**

 **Content warning: not much but some fluffiness, I promise there'll be plot soon. Some minor grave robbing towards the end though, vomit and brief Viking backstory.**

* * *

Vikings as a whole were not known for being particularly house proud, they were more comfortable wielding swords than dusters. But Caleb Stone Brow had been given the very great honour of hosting the Vampire-Candy queens and their three adopted orphans on their honeymoon and he was determined his village would _not_ be shabby when they arrived. Huge Mountain Vikings strained under the still hot autumn sun and sweated by the bucket-load as they toiled beneath his stern gaze. He was not called Stone Brow for nothing.

A straggly group of teenage Vikings staggered past him carrying a massive longboat hastily filled with a lilac and cream sweet pea display and his eyes narrowed at the way they jostled and shoved at each other. That kind of idiocy could completely destroy the flowers he'd worked for weeks to carefully cultivate, one slip and they'd be decorating the beautifully swept cobble stones.

"Hagan! Astar! If I see any more rough housing from you two I will make you polish every tile on the roof of every long house, naked with angry raccoons tied to your balls! GOT IT?" he bawled across the village square, making the two teens jump and the longboat sway dangerously. Astar steadied it carefully before he replied.

"Yessir! Sorry Chief Sir!" The gangly boy made to salute and hit himself in the side of the head with his end of the longboat, knocking himself cross eyed but somehow managing to remain upright at least. How such a klutz had ever been born to Caleb's elegant sister he'd never understand; Astar was Caleb's nephew but he acted more like the nephew of a goat. It must be the influence of that big ugly River Viking Astrid had married. Nobody on their side of the family acted like such a jackass, their mother wouldn't have allowed it.

He left them to it, striding back through the village and nodding in approval as everyone hurriedly hung curtains and placed little porcelain animals and flowers in their windows. By the time they were finished the village would look _sweet_ or they would all get thrown in the damn sea. Caleb Stone Brow did not do things by half.

The day dragged on and the Vikings toiled and Caleb screamed himself hoarse trying to keep the rough housing to an absolute minimum. Normally he'd be in the middle of the scrum, beating the tar out of any man who so much as looked at him. But not today. He was going to make the damn place respectable or so help him Glob-

"I see the carriage!" the lookout yelled from the roof of their great feasting hall. jumping up and down excitedly. "Off in the distance, it's all pink and black and shiny!"

The Mountain Vikings lined up on the side of the road, arms full of flowers and faces scrubbed shiny in various rainbow hues of skin tone. As the brand new and indeed very shiny carriage rolled up the hill towards them Caleb held his breath, scanning the whole crowd for some unforeseen circumstance that could ruin his elaborate plans. Nothing, nobody was out of place. He blew out hard through his nose. Any second now the carriage would pull around the corner and they could begin. Excellent, it was all going to be perfec-

"-supposed to know he gets travel sick? He's fine when we're flying!"

"GROD DAMMIT MARCY IT'S ALL OVER ME IT'S IN MY HAIR!"

He barely heard the adult voices above the combined wailing of distressed children; obviously things hadn't gone as perfectly from the other end as he'd hoped. The carriage rolled to a stop and before the wheels were fully stationary the door was flung open and one of the queens tumbled out. The assembled Vikings threw their armfuls of flower petals at her in confusion; this was not how Caleb had explained the plans to them and they were nervous of doing something wrong. She screamed and ducked under the colourful assault. A large number of petals hit the inside of the carriage too and a small yellow puppy exploded out from under a seat, barking excitedly and running everywhere, sniffing everything he possibly could.

A second later the paler queen drifted out beneath a floppy sun hat, holding a greenish looking baby in one arm and flickery blue one in the other. The air smelled of flower petals and sunscreen and fresh vomit.

"Caleb Stone Brow? I need to use your shower." the pink woman on the ground informed him tartly. Caleb tried not to stare, but she'd clearly been vomited on and now the flower petals were sticking in it, like she'd been tarred and feathered by incredibly colourful pirates.

He bowed respectfully anyway, because Caleb wasn't stupid and he knew better than to laugh at a royal right to their face. Besides, the pink one was Bubblegum and she was more than a bit terrifying. Vampires didn't bother him but he'd heard rumours that the Candy woman did unnatural things with science. He didn't want her to science him into something unnatural.

"Right this way, milady. We'll err, just cancel the doves, right lads?"

The boys who'd been going to release the dozen pure white doves from their cage looked at each other in confusion. But the little yellow dog had already run up and was barking and yelling at the doves, waving the vampire lady over to come and inspect them then yelling even louder when she didn't immediately give him her full attention.

Caleb just shook his head in defeat and lead Bubblegum off to the long house they'd prepared for the visiting royal family, trying to ignore the smell of baby vomit that hung around her.

...

Freshly showered and changed Bonnie was feeling a little guilty for yelling about Finn getting sick in her hair. It wasn't his fault he was travel sick. She should have just agreed to let Marcy fly overhead with him, but then she'd not wanted Finn to think he got special treatment over their other two children and she hadn't wanted to ride alone while they all got to fly in the fresh air. Well she'd paid for that mistake at least.

Once the Mountain Vikings had gotten over the shock of their entrance and rounded up Jake before he terrorized the doves any further they'd organised a feast and traditional entertainment in their honour. It was all a bit much, Bonnie would have been much more comfortable with something low key. But Olgar had suggested spending a few days in the mountains with them before travelling on to the coast, to break up the journey for the little ones and show off the beautiful little village he'd grown up in, he'd been so excited for them to visit that she hadn't want to let him down.

Caleb had the look of his father but somewhere in their strange genetics his colour had gone a little wonky and instead of Olgar's vivid purple tones his son was a more pastel lavender shot through with lilacs and rosy pinks. It wasn't the most masculine look for a Viking and Bonnie wondered if that was why he took being the chief entirely too seriously. More like his mother, Eagle Mask, in that respect.

At dinner she made a point of sitting Finn directly next to her and feeding him all the things he loved best, as an apology for shouting. He'd forgotten about it already but it made her feel a little better anyway. Cinnamon Bun sat on the other side of Finn, he'd driven the carriage for them because Bonnie had been struggling to suggest who should get that particular job. She hadn't wanted to bring The Morrow and worry about finding enough fresh meat to feed him the whole time and Marceline had point blank refused to just fly them all there, making some dark comment about not being a magic carpet.

If she'd asked Zoe then Matilda would have come too, and anyway Bonnie didn't want someone Marceline had been intimate with in the past to come on their honeymoon with them, no matter how charming and cute Tilda and Zoe could be. No, that was just not going to happen. She didn't really know Stefan well enough and Peppermint Butler had to stay behind as acting Candy Regent while they were gone. Manfried didn't like to be anywhere he couldn't find a ceiling to attach himself to, Tree Trunks was having a well earned holiday of her own and if she'd been forced to make polite conversation with a mush brained Banana Guard for two weeks Bonnie thought she might have gone mad. So Cinnamon Bun had somehow landed the role of Royal Chauffeur.

"Hey princess," he said quietly to her over Finn's head. "Why's Marceline looking at me like that?"

"You know I'm married to a queen now, right Cinnamon Bun? So that means I'm a queen as well." she whispered back, a small smile curving her lips. "But you can still call me 'princess' if you like, it'll take a while to get used to the change. And she's looking vaguely nauseated because you're feeding Finn bits of banana."

Cinnamon Bun stared at her blankly. Bonnie often forgot the big man wasn't as knowledgeable as most of her citizens, which was saying a lot.

"That's what some of the demon poop in the Nightosphere looks like." she explained quietly. "So to her it looks like you're feeding our son little bites of poop."

Finn chose that exact moment to grin across at Marceline with his mouth absolutely stuffed full of banana. She carefully put down the slice of watermelon she'd been about to drain and busied herself feeling coal shards and little splinters of wood to Phoebe, who burped a tiny ash cloud and giggled.

"People say she's really scary but I think she's nice." Cinnamon Bun said unexpectedly. "Like, she's never mean to me and she let me wear her hat one time."

"I think she's nice too." Bonnie replied with a fond smile. He might not be the best conversationalist but Cinnamon Bun didn't know the meaning of the word 'dishonesty'. He genuinely thought Marceline was one of the nicest people he'd ever met because she'd let him wear her hat.

"Is that why you got married on her?"

"Um, we just call it 'married', not 'married on', CB. And yeah, it's one of the reasons." she replied. Cinnamon Bun seemed lost in thought for so long that Bonnie had returned to alternately feeding Jake then Finn and trying to grab a bite of her own meal when they both had their mouths full.

"Will you be my bridesmaid?"

The question caught her off guard and Bonnie paused, confused. Jake stretched his head up to nibble the scrap of salted beef she'd been about to feed him and she distractedly petted him before his neck twanged back and he returned to normal size.

"Are you getting married, Cinnamon Bun? I think you need to have a partner before you can have a wedding."

He nodded enthusiastically, big face going wide and happy.

"I'm going to marry the princess!"

Bonnie looked around, confused.

"But CB, we just talked about this. I already got married, and I'm not a princess anymore."

But Cinnamon Bun wasn't looking at her. He was waving across the table to where Marcy was trying to wrestle Phoebe into a sitting position rather than standing on the table and putting her feet in everyone's dinner. She waved back happily, blowing a fiery raspberry and nimbly avoiding her Mom's hands.

"Cinnamon Bun, Phoebe's just a baby. You can't get married to a baby, it has to be an adult person who you love." Bonnie sighed, unwilling to crush his dream but worried they'd be in for a whole world of trouble if she didn't nip this in the bud now. She knew the big man didn't mean any harm by it and certainly didn't mean it in a creepy way. He just didn't understand what a wedding meant or what kind of relationship it involved.

"One day she'll be big, and she likes all the same reading books as me." he replied with a happy smile.

That was technically true, Bonnie thought, and under other circumstances it might even have been cute. CB loved the old fairy tales that Marceline read almost as much as the kids did. He'd taken to coming up to the palace so he could listen to them every night, bringing that ridiculously huge stuffed bunny toy Peppermint Butler had gotten for him soon after the incident with the Lich and the cavern. Bonnie still didn't know the full story behind that; Peppermint had mumbled something about it being for 'services above and beyond' while she'd been kidnapped that summer. She hadn't wanted to probe it any further, her wrist still ached weirdly every time she thought about it. Unconsciously she reached down and rubbed at the shallow scar that ran all the way around her left hand.

In the end she decided to just let this strange new idea of his lie. It was just another one of the big man's passing fancies; he'd been listening to too many fairy tales and now he thought he was going to marry a princess because that's what happened at the end of most of them. Plus he'd just seen a genuine princess get married, it must have been a light bulb moment for him.

Bonnie hadn't really noticed where in the crowd he'd been sitting that day. She'd been too busy marrying the woman of her dreams during the most beautiful ceremony that had ever existed, she'd not had any head space left over for noticing anyone else. So she had no idea if he'd gotten a good view of what a wedding actually looked like or if he thought it was just some kind of big party where ladies wore white dresses and everyone had dinner together after sitting down near some big displays of flowers for a while. There was no easy way to know; if she questioned him too much he'd get confused and they'd end up discussing the manufacture of paper clips or something equally random.

She might have said more to him but at that moment Caleb stood and politely rapped his fist against his helmet for quiet.

"Ahem. Ladies and Gentlevikings, your Majesties and tiny majesties; may I have the indeedly honour of presenting to you tonight's entertainment?" He read it from a small scrap of paper, squinting at the runes and speaking in the hesitant voice of someone unused to public oration. Bonnie wondered if it would be bad manners to let him know that 'indeedly' wasn't a real word.

The Vikings roared and banged their goblets on the table in enthusiasm, but at a glare from Caleb it turned into a smattering of light applause. One old Viking even yelled "Jolly good!" and doffed his helmet when Caleb turned his glare that way.

"Right lads! Shut up, we're gonna tell a story!" Caleb roared after a moment when the sniggering and goblet banging refused to completely die down. But when he drew out from his tunic a small hand bound book the entire Tribe fell silent, staring at it reverently.

"When Kevin the Eriksson founded the Viking Tribes he had only one thing in his possession. The Holy Book. It has turned to dust along with his bones now but every hundred years we transcribe it, perfectly, word for word. This is the book. He brought the words of the gods, the words of our culture. He brought 'A History of the Norse Men: Gods And Myths Of The Viking Age'. This holy text has formed the basis of our civilization since the Mushroom war, shaping us into true Vikings even as our bodies changed to better befit the children of the gods. Kevin the Eriksson and his fearless band of brothers feast eternal with Odin Allfather in Valhalla!"

And the Vikings all banged their goblets again, crying "Kevin the Eriksson! Odin Allfather!". Bonnie shared a look of confused amusement with Marceline, who scooped up Phoebe and floated across the table to them under the cover of the noise and traditional Viking music they struck up.

"Y'know, I met Kevin Eriksson. He was an old guy and I was just a tiny baby vamp back then, but you'd never guess from the way these guys talk that he was a dirty bike gang leader. They called themselves The Vikings because they raided other human settlements and carried off their women as well as anything else of value, they were raiders and slavers. Not nice people. He made his gang read his stupid Viking book so they could write secret messages to each other in runes; none of the other humans knew how to read it. Do you think they'd want to-"

"No! Don't even think about telling them, Marcy. You'd crush their dreams!" Bonnie gasped, horrified. Marceline just shrugged and went back to listening to the music. She wore a wonky half smile on her lips that Bonnie knew meant she was behaving against her better nature. Bonie slipped one warm hand into her wife's cold one and they shared a private smile.

...

As usual the Candy citizens weren't listening to Peppermint Butler. He sat on the throne and yelled himself hoarse and they just continued partying and ignoring him. Mr Candycane spared him an apologetic smile when the volleyball they'd been playing a spontaneous pick up game with smacked him in the face after a particularly brutal serve from a sprinkle doughnut, but he didn't stop to chat and completely ignored Peppermint's yells at him.

Without warning the air chilled around him and Peppermint Butler stared around in shock. Someone above his head spoke and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Need some assistance, short stuff?"

Oh great. The noise had woken the vampires and now they were circling his throne like large pale dolphins swimming through the air. Peppermint Butler wished Marceline hadn't left them behind. As thankful as he'd been that the girls had been there to help save the day from the Lich they'd served their purpose and as far as he could see should just go home until he needed to summon them again. But of course she'd been sentimental about seeing them again, something he perhaps should have stopped to consider before forging the letter that had brought them here. And then during their last minute wedding planning when Marceline had expressed regret that Stefan hadn't lived to be her best man Zoe had ever so helpfully spoken up and said that yes, Stefan was still alive, he was alone on an island in the middle of the ocean. Shall we call him now? Another vampire in the palace, that was just brilliant.

"Oi! You lot, shut up!"

He might have been impressed if his demon eyes hadn't seen the sparks of vampire magic that Matilda's aura shot out at the crowd. As one they turned to look at her, hunger and lust suddenly warring for dominance on their sugary faces.

"You're all being too fucking noisy and the Regent wants to talk to you about important shit, ok?"

"I'd like to be fucking noisy with you." growled a marshmallow boy, grabbing for her elbow. He got it in his face instead and fell back with a cry.

"No touching, sugarsweet. You all think I'm hot, right?"

They nodded and shouted enthusiastically.

"And you don't want me to be upset with you, do you?"

They shook their heads and shouted this time. Peppermint Butler repressed a snort; it wasn't funny Groddammit!

"So then, what I need for you to do is be the quietest little candy folk you can until sunset, yeah? At sunset we're gonna go to Butterscotch Lake and have an after hours pool party!"

"YEAH! We love you, Matilda the Vampire Guard!"

"And I love you too! Now BE FUCKING QUIET!"

And just like that, they were. She turned back to where Peppermint Butler was staring at her, open mouthed.

"You know that once your Talent wears off they'll just wake you again, right? And they'll be hurt and angry that you manipulated them." he managed after a moment. Matilda just grinned at him. Why did vampires grin impishly so much? It was annoying.

"They'll remember that the beautiful lady told them to be quiet, and that we're having a party tonight. They're not quite bright enough to realise I put my 'fluence on them. Have a nice day."

And she swooped off still grinning with her annoying vampire friends in tow. Peppermint Butler didn't know whether to give her the silent treatment or shout his thanks at her retreating back. He settled for glaring resentfully at her.

"That's one damn fine looking woman, Peppermint. I wouldn't mind her laying some sugar down on me."

He looked around. Manfried was swinging entirely too close, his eyes a little glazed and dreamy. Peppermint Butler frowned, annoyed. Even Manfried was under her undead charm?

"She's a vampire, Manfried. What do you think she'd do to you, except beat you with a stick and eat the red out from your insides?"

"I dunno man, but I'd be willing to find out."

Peppermint Butler made up his mind. Silent treatment it was; he'd rather the crowd had just stayed noisy.

...

Graveyards weren't so hard to find in Ooo. Human graveyards, that was the tricky part. Gunther wenk'd in annoyance as he and his crew waddled up to yet another empty site. This one was in the middle of a large lake.

"Come on, boys! Let's get digging!"

Ice King's enthusiasm for building a wife hadn't dampened at all in the days since he'd been struck with inspiration. He hovered over to the edge of the lake and with a burst of power froze the whole thing solid, then lifted his arms to the sky and lifted the entire ice sheet up into the air. Tiny fish and snails stared out of the frozen water at the lake's now solid bottom, trapped and terrified. With a resentful 'wenk' Gunther and the other penguins waddled down to the drained lake bed and began digging.

Like all the other 'graveyards' Ice King thought he'd identified Gunther expected this one to be empty. So when he struck a water damaged large wooden box after an hour or so of digging his surprised 'WENK!' immediately drew the attention of the other penguins and his king.

They hauled the box out onto the bank, next to the enormous pyramid of slightly melted ice. The fish frozen in its depths stared at them.

"Well? What does it say?" Ice King demanded, as Gunther climbed on top and began to brush the dirt from the lid with his stubby wing.

"Wenk. Wenk wenk, wenk we-" Gunther broke off in surprise as the old man pushed him out of the way impatiently.

"Let me see that! 'Here rest the earthly remains of Mrs Ruth Elizabeth Francis, beloved Wife and Mother, 1910-1983. May the Angels bear her Home on Golden Clouds.' This is it! A genuine real live dead human woman skeleton! Gunther! Prepare the DNA sampling kit!"

"Wenk!"

Another blast of ice magic and the lid cracked in two. Ice King grabbed the crowbar he'd brought along with the other tools and with a surprising amount of strength for such an old man he wrenched the top half of the lid away. It crumbled into large pieces when it hit the dirt.

After a thousand years in the ground Mrs Ruth Elizabeth Francis wasn't looking so hot. There were a few wisps of white hair still clinging to the top of her yellowing skull but most of the other bones had disintegrated when the coffin was moved. Gunther reached gingerly into the casket and plucked a single white hair delicately from the skull, depositing it in a sample bottle he passed to the Ice King.

"I told you there was a human graveyard here." Ice King told Gunther smugly.

"Wenk wenk?"

"How did I know? I... don't know. I just did. I remembered it, like, it was just there in my brain waiting for me to think about it. Don't question me, Gunther! We have our human DNA, now rebury that old lady with dignity and we'll be on our way."

"Wenk?"

"Because the dead deserve respect, you vile little barbarian. Mrs Ruth Elizabeth Francis has been good enough to gift us with one of her precious hairs and the least you can do is repay her kindness by returning her to her eternal rest with decorum and honour! Snap to it!"

"Wenk!"

And so by the time the lake water was returned above her Mrs Ruth Elizabeth Francis had a bouquet of ice roses placed on the pile of dust where Ice King thought her chest had probably been and the lid of her casket reinforced with the strongest ice he could create. He may not be the dream husband of every woman in Ooo but he knew enough to thank a lady with flowers when she'd done a good deed for him.

"Goodnight again, Mrs Ruth Elizabeth Francis. May the angels bear you home on golden clouds."


	4. Chapter 4

**This one is still quite fluffy, but I promise that the next chapter is going to be full of increasingly dark plot. Yeah, this is gonna be pretty dark pretty soon, just so you know. A quick note on the last chapter just to avoid confusion; in this universe Finn and Phoebe are brother and sister. They won't have any kind of romantic involvement with each other, ever. I am a total Finn/Flame Princess shipper in general but in the Foundlingsverse they grow up as siblings because I was never happy with how they resolved Phoebe's imprisonment and eventual release in cannon and I wanted Bonnie to take responsibility for it. So they're not going to be dating each other, ever, in this universe. I hope that's not a massive disappointment to anyone.**

 **Content Warning: more family fluff, ominous plotting, Talents, potential polyamory/jealousy issues.**

* * *

Jake's powers were getting stronger. That was the first thing Marcy thought when she slipped out of the door of their longhouse and into the bright town square. She'd only just grudgingly gotten out of bed and blearily donned her sun hat and gloves, then followed the delighted screaming of her children outside. Grod only knew what mischief they'd gotten up to now, Jake had upset the doves yesterday and caused them to leave quite a mess on the cobblestones. At least the Vikings knew better than to keep their easily scared livestock in a wire bottomed cage now. She stopped and blinked in the bright light, sure what she was seeing must be an illusion or something.

Because there was Jake standing next to a small group of horses with a saddle on his back. He'd shape shifted himself into a life-sized horse, too. Phoebe was sitting on his back in a little baby safety seat they'd attached there for her and she bounced and waved the second she saw her Mom, tugging on Jake's reins and making him look around in confusion.

"Moooom! Imma horsey! Lookit!" Jake screamed when he saw her too, letting his tail shift back to its more usual Dog form and wagging it as hard as he could. He kept the rest of his body very still so he didn't jostle his little sister, stretching an extra hand up from his back to steady her baby seat when she bounced a little too hard. It made Marceline smile to see what a protective big brother he was becoming; only a few months living together and already the three kids were as thick as thieves. She was immensely proud of all of them, if not just a little confused right now.

Jake's excited tail nearly smacked the other horses in the face and they backed away from him, huge eyes rolling crazily and hooves stamping. Bonnie popped her head up over Jake's back and waved too, even from that distance Marceline could tell by the slight slump of her new wife's figure that perhaps she'd kept Bonnie up a little too late the night before. Finn was sitting on her shoulders and slyly sucking on a small clump of pink gummy hair. He giggled around a mouthful of gum when Marcy threw him a wink and drummed his feet happily against Bonnie's collarbones. She winced but made no move to stop him, still guilty about the vomiting incident from the day before.

"Good morning, love. Sleep well?" Bonnie inquired with a tired but genuine smile.

"I- uh, yeah, great thanks- Bon, what am I looking at? Why is our son a horse?"

Jake neighed surprisingly convincingly and Phoebe bounced in her safety saddle again, singing nonsense words tunelessly and burying her hands into Jake's thick mane.

"He saw the horses and just... yeah, this happened. He hasn't taken the saddle off all morning. I was worried at first that he'd shrink and drop her but she's been taking turns riding around with Finn and he's been perfectly careful with them both. I'd have woken you earlier but I had a feeling you could use some extra sleep." Bonnie replied, smile turning subtly devious at the end. There was no missing her intention that time.

"Oh, right. Yeah, because I was up kinda late. Still getting used to this sleeping through the night gig. I appreciate the thought, love." Marceline felt her cheeks heat just a little; she hadn't even entertained the idea of leaving the kids behind for their trip but it was a honeymoon and they were newlyweds so of course they'd been up half the night. It was expected, the Vikings had even left a bouquet of lovely red roses on their bed. The fact that those roses were now lovely white roses full of tiny fang pricks wasn't the point; in their ever so subtle way the Mountain Vikings had been trying to set a romantic ambience. Shame Phoebe had woken up and screamed for an hour for no good reason, but it hadn't really stopped them once she'd finally settled down. Nothing was going to ruin their honeymoon.

"Anyway, I dunno about anyone else but I think I smell Viking breakfast. Or lunch, whatever, I figured you'd have eaten already when you got up but I'm red starved. Wanna come check it out?"

The kids all yelled excitedly and Marcy flashed up to hover above Jake's back a split second before he shrank and ran off in the direction of the feasting hall. Phoebe giggled again from where she'd been deftly caught and tried to haul herself upright on a clump of Marceline's hair. She grimaced; Finn must have taught her that particular trick. Little monsters.

"Perfectly safe?" she asked Bonnie as they landed next to the discarded baby saddle and shot her wife a disgruntled look. Phoebe bounced happily again and chattered to herself, pulling curiously at the edges of Marcy's long gloves and staring in fascination when her exposed skin began to smoke in the daylight.

"Well, it was perfectly safe until you mentioned lunch! You know how Jake gets about food."

"He gets that from Joshua. Glob, he was at a party I was at years ago and I saw him practically inhale a whole buffet. Dogs eat like... well, horses. Heh. I know Jake's growing up fast but d'you suppose he understands irony yet? Don't stress about almost dropping the baby though. One time Simon nearly killed us both with his amazing idea of riding a beat up old motorbike he found. Lucky it ran away without us and exploded. My helmet was pretty cool though, I kept that. Thought we could try Jake on burritos, see if they fill him for more than an hour or two. Hey Jake! Save some space for burritos!" Marcy yelled the last part across to the feasting hall as they followed him at a more sedate pace.

Honestly Bonnie hadn't meant to stop listening but she was getting very used to the only semi coherent pre-breakfast ramblings of a relaxed and happy Marceline so she was pretty sure she wasn't missing anything too important. It was good to know Marcy was back in the kind of mood where she felt comfortable enough to just open her mouth and let whatever she was thinking come out but it was more of a gentle background hum, her wife didn't expect Bonnie to reply anyway. She was just thinking out loud, letting her brain get back up to speed.

Besides, Bonnibel was quite tired too. They had been up late enjoying being married and then someone had to get up and look after the kids because she wasn't entrusting them to Cinnamon Bun for the entire morning; she hadn't had the heart to wake Marcy and was still feeling guilty about yesterday.

So despite only having had just under four hours of sleep she'd gotten up and at Caleb's insistence taken the little ones for their first pony ride. It was uncomfortable and bouncy and nowhere near as fun as riding The Morrow or flying with Marceline but the kids had loved it so she'd tiredly trudged along with them anyway, on a slow old horse that had tried to take a bite out of her leg and didn't seem to like any of the other horses. Jake especially had been enchanted, he'd stretched down from his baby saddle and turned himself into a horse after about ten minutes and insisted his siblings ride around on his back.

Bonnie tuned back in to Marceline's rambling voice as they approached the feast hall.

"...think Stefan would mind staying a while? I know he's only hanging around because of me. It's hard for him to be around people anyway what with his psychic Talent and I guess he's got the same problems a lot of vampires do; time isn't a concept we deal well with because we're kinda immune to it. He's never gonna stop missing Marco the way a mortal would, even after all these centuries. Did I ever tell you about Marco? It's not really a breakfast kind of conversation. But if you want to know about it later we can talk about it when the kids are asleep. Hey look, Caleb found strawberries! Out of season too, I'm impressed!" she finished her rambling speech with a yawn, hovering over to the lunch that'd been laid out for them and grabbing a handful of the little red fruits.

Bonnie just nodded distractedly; something about Stefan missing someone and Joshua eating a lot. She was much more concerned with the contents of the coffee pot for right now. She pulled Finn down from her shoulders and frowned at the pink gummy mess stuck to his face. Next time he sat on her shoulders she'd be sure to wear a hat.

"So how are you getting on with the Mountain Vikings? I heard someone makes quite the handsome pony."

Everyone except Marcy jumped and turned in the direction of the voice. Of course she'd already known who was there, nothing seemed to startle her. Bonnie had never stopped being just a little jealous of her vampire instincts; she'd probably recognised the speaker's heartbeat before she was even through the door.

"GAR!" Jake yelled and hurtled towards the portly figure that stepped out of the shadows and swept him into a hug.

Olgar strode forward and beamed around at them all. His big face was full of pride as he surveyed them, happily taking in how excited the children were to see him again despite only having been away for a couple of days.

"Olgar! We wondered when you'd be joining us. How's Eagle Mask?" Bonnie smiled, popping a still sticky Finn down into one of the baby chairs provided and hurrying forward to claim her own hug from the big Viking hero.

"She's fine, she said to tell you hello and to express her deep regret that she couldn't come to see you herself."

"Doesn't sound like her if I'm honest." Marcy replied with a smile.

"Ok, what she actually said was; 'Olgar just bloody go and beat your family up in the mountains if you absolutely must and leave me out of it. Tell the queens I'm sorry to miss them but I have a lot of reading to do anyway and I hate those rough housing parties.'" he replied with a grin.

"Yeah, that's much more like Eagle."

Eagle Mask had left the palace after the wedding weighed down with a trunk of books borrowed from Bonnibel's library. Once the imminent threat of death and destruction had passed and they'd had more time together the two women had bonded over a mutual love of reading ancient academic tomes while Marceline taught Olgar to play the banjo. Eagle swore she'd never forgive the vampire for that but she'd smiled behind her mask when she'd said it so Marceline was about eighty percent sure she was joking, probably.

The door was pushed open again and Caleb entered carrying a whole roasted stag with one massive muscular hand. He stopped dead when he saw their visitor and a matching grin broke out across his rosy face.

"Dad! You could have let me know you were coming, I'd have done another deer!" he bellowed cheerfully, slamming the meat down on the table and punching his father fairly hard in the shoulder in lieu of an affectionate greeting. Olgar laughed and slung his arm around Caleb's neck, briefly putting his son into a stranglehold and messing up his lilac hair.

The mingled voices and laughter rising from the feasting hall rang around the square. The Mountain Viking tribe en mass swelled with pride; despite their shaky start yesterday so far everything was going swimmingly and the royal family seemed to be enjoying their visit. Nobody even noticed the little penguin across the square plucking wingfuls of soft lilac and white sweet pea blossoms into a little sample jar. He hooted in satisfaction a couple of times once the jar was full and then hurried off, back to his waiting master.

...

Ice King surveyed the heaped treasures that the penguins had gathered with glee. The pile glittered pale and beautiful. Nothing short of the very best materials would be used for his new wife.

Along with the ancient human hair they'd collected there was a pile of the softest silk threads Gunther and his crew had been able to find. Some were silver, some cream, one or two a pale gold. Mostly they'd come from various pieces of stolen clothing from the more upmarket places in Ooo.

Gunther had wenk'd himself to exhaustion with pride when he presented a number of square fabric samples that had been torn from a bigger sample book. Ice King couldn't say with absolute certainty but he suspected that Gunther had broken into the Candy palace and swiped the leftover trinkets from the recent wedding there. He'd brought a glittering paper lantern that looked suspiciously similar to the ones that had decorated the tables at the reception, too. Bubblegum would be mad about that and her science equipment when she found out and no doubt Ice King would have to play the diplomat and make it up to her. He hoped a double date with his new wife and her new wife too would do it. He'd be the cool guy at the bowling alley hanging with three lovely babes! That would be sweet, and it'd make Bubblegum forgive him for stealing her trinkets. He congratulated himself on that particular stroke of genius before turning his attention back to his treasures.

The very best things amongst the piles of treasures were the big pale sapphires that had come out of a hidden dungeon near Breakfast Kingdom. Ice King himself had personally frozen every monster in the place then walked in and merrily helped himself to the treasure while the dragons and orcs stared helplessly at him from their frozen prisons. He didn't understand why adventurers made such a big fuss over dungeons, they were so easy it was boring.

He sorted through the treasures and made piles of things that could be used for creating various body parts. Silk threads for hair, the sapphires for eyes, a roll of woven silk in palest periwinkle blue for her skin. His penguins had outdone themselves this time.

"You're going to be so beautiful." he crooned to the piles of objects, petting the silk threads what would form his wife's hair. "And you're going to have the most loving husband in the world. I'll do anything to keep you happy. My princess."

He closed his eyes and hummed happily, picturing all the things they'd do together. He'd take her on picnics, they'd bathe together and he could wash the silk of her hair, they could go stargazing and he'd teach her to sing...

He was away, lost in his imagination zone where he danced the English waltz with his new wife under a blanket of stars and blazing moonlight. She would be so perfect.

...

Manfried sighed as quietly as he could, letting his eyes drink in the extreme pallor of her soft skin and those flawless full kissable lips. She was just too beautiful when she slept, he decided. So pale and so lovely, curled up on her side in mid-air, slowly drifting up and down just a little. He wanted to get closer, wanted to rub his face against her lovely red hair and inhale her amazing scent.

It was strange, he'd never really had urges like that before. And he'd always assumed that if he did it would be for another candy person, not a vampire. But here he was, hanging in the corner of the Vampire Guards' bedroom, watching Matilda sleep. It was necessary; he didn't want anyone else to creep on his girl. Her gal pal was ok, Zoe was a nice chick who looked after Matilda when Manfried wasn't around. But it was clear the lovely young woman needed a real man.

And again he wondered where those thoughts were coming from, because Manfried had never considered himself to be a man as such, despite being male. It was like something entirely alien had turned up in his head whenever he was reminded of the petite vampire; he felt decidedly weird.

Manfried narrowed his eyes when he heard footsteps outside the bedroom door. Nobody should be creeping around their room this time of the day; it was lunchtime and the vampires wouldn't be awake for ages yet. He should have hours more to watch her.

The door handle slowly lowered and the door squeaked ever so slightly as it opened. Zoe shifted restlessly in the air above the bed but didn't wake. Manfried held his breath and prepared to shower the intruder with candy. He wouldn't allow anyone to interrupt their quality time. Whoever was outside was muttering to themselves, and after a second Manfried made out the words.

"Old Starchy's gonna win the heart of a fair lady."

Starchy, then. Manfried considered, he could probably take the old janitor if it came to a fight. He had the element of surprise and the height advantage too, all he had to do was hope that Starchy hadn't brought a stick or something he could beat the Piñata with.

But the old man had his mop and bucket with him as well as a bouquet of roses and as he stepped through the door and approached the bed Manfried dropped out of the shadows by the ceiling and showered him with sharp lumps of candy. Starchy screamed and brought his mop handle to bear like a sword, battering at Manfried and causing him to spill yet more candy everywhere. Out of nowhere the bathroom door was flung open and a gingerbread man tumbled out, half wrapped in the wires of his recording equipment. How long had he been there? Manfried growled in frustration. Matilda was _his_ girl, when would these other jerks get that into their stupid sugar brains?

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

Oh great, and now those bozos had woken her up!

"Starchy brought you flowers!" the old man puffed, proudly holding up the battered stalks of the roses he'd been hitting Manfried with.

"No! He doesn't love you like I do! Nobody does!" the gingerbread man panted, giving up on trying to free himself from his tangled nest of wires and crawling towards the bed with a dreamy glaze on his face. Manfried growled again, shooting more candy at the gingerbread man. Damn, he was running low. Better save it for when he really needed it.

"I was just making sure nobody broke into your room!" Manfried chimed in, feeling he should defend himself in case these creeps made him look weird for hanging around in her bedroom, too. "Because I didn't want anyone to interrupt our quality time!"

Zoe blinked around sleepily, locking eyes with Matilda and apparently asking her some kind of silent question. Matilda stared at all three of them hard, Manfried waited patiently for her to order the other two to leave.

"You guys are… fighting over me?" she hazarded after a moment. "A bunch of little walking candies, and you're fighting about who loves me most?" she started giggling and Manfried laughed too. He didn't get the joke but he wanted to laugh anyway, just being close to her made him want to laugh with joy. Zoe was laughing too; she was such a good friend to his Matilda. In fact both women were curled right up in the air, sobbing into each others' shoulders with the force of their laughter. Well it was funny but maybe not that funny. Manfried stopped laughing and shared a look with the other candy people.

"You- ah! Seriously? You're in- in love- aha! With… oh I can't even speak!" and she was howling with laughter, almost crying with it. Manfried didn't know what to say.

"You took us for a pool party. You asked us all to be quiet for you yesterday and I saw how beautiful you were and then last night at the party, I sent a drink over to your table. You didn't know it was from me?"

Matilda just stared at him, the laughter beginning to leave her face. No, he could see it now. She'd had no idea the drink was from him, no idea he even existed. He'd been a fool, an idiot, to think an angel like her would ever notice a guy like him. She was probably shacked up with that big vampire man that Queen Marceline had invited to her wedding. Oh Glob, he felt so-

Matilda waved her hand lazily and Manfried looked around, confused. For some reason he was in the bedroom of the two vampire women, with some gingerbread guy and Starchy staring around themselves in equal confusion. He locked eyes with the redhead vampire, who was staring at him intently. Had they spoken? He vaguely remembered a party last night, she'd been DJing and he'd sent a drink to say thanks for the awesome music. Yeah, that must be it. He was there to thank her in person.

"So, thanks Matilda." he muttered distractedly. "Thanks for the awesome party. I err, I'll just go and let you sleep, yeah? Come on, Starchy, random dude."

Half his candy was lying scattered around the floor of the room and he gathered up as much as he could before he trailed out, noticing in confusion that someone had thrown ripped up rose heads everywhere. Probably a vampire thing, he shrugged and thought no more about it. He hoped they'd have another party soon, it had been so much fun.

As they closed the door on their way out Zoe gently turned Matilda's face toward her and fixed her with a gentle smile.

"Feeling guilty, love?" she murmured, her voice still a little rough from sleeping.

"Yeah, I guess. I didn't mean to affect them that strongly! Took the 'fluence off them now so we shouldn't have any more problems. I forgot how stupid and weak minded most of the candies are."

"Better not let Bubblegum hear you say that, she's one of the smartest and most resilient people I've ever met." Zoe answered, eyes closed again.

"She is. Really pretty, too. And nice. I see why the queen likes her so much."

Something about Matilda's tone made Zoe open her eyes to study her more closely, but her lover had already rolled back over and claimed her rightful place curled into Zoe's arms, so she let it go after a couple of seconds. Perhaps she'd just misread it; after all her brain was still slow from being woken so suddenly.

But it was possible, she thought, just a little possible, that maybe Matilda had a bit of a crush too. Stefan had warned her quietly last night that their new queen had more than one stray thought about Matilda and her unusual seductress Talent, not because she should feel threatened but because Matilda had a long history of forming passing fancies with women she met and having her fragile heart broken. She always bounced back eventually but it never stopped her from rushing headlong into the next mistake. And this time it was the queen's new wife that had caught her eye. It would only complicate things further. Marceline wasn't known for being good at sharing, she was jealous and possessive and sometimes a bit of a control freak. Zoe didn't want to end up getting caught in the middle of a feud between her lover and her queen. Loyalty to them both made her heart ache just to think of it.

Zoe smiled a little sadly; if Matilda chose to pursue it then things wouldn't end happily for any of them. But she'd be there to pick up the pieces if they fell, as she had been countless times in the past. She was loyal to her Sire and queen, but Matilda had been hers since before they'd been Turned. Matilda owned her heart like nobody else ever could. She closed her eyes and let sleep claim her again, content for the moment to let it lie as there was nothing else she could do. Perhaps the problem would just resolve itself.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the delay in posting, this week I had all the fun of family medical emergencies and then a thoroughly disappointing birthday. So I hope that's a good enough reason for delayed posting. As promised, from here on in things get a bit dark for a few chapters.**

 **Content Warning: injury, psychological torture.**

* * *

The week in the mountains passed quickly and happily in a blur of picnics, hot springs and nature walks every day and late nights alone in their long house. Bonnie had almost make up her mind to rent a small cabin there every summer for a week or two, so the kids could come and play in the fresh mountain air and get a little closer to nature than life in the palace would usually allow them to. Marceline wasn't convinced though; she liked the mountains well enough but made the pretty good point that if they wanted to get close to nature then a ten minute walk in any direction from the palace would bring them into the heart of the candy forest. Their kingdom wasn't huge and the town that had grown up in the shadow of the palace was small enough to visit every house in just a few days. They bickered good naturedly about it for a while before agreeing to wait see how they felt next summer.

The Mountain Vikings waved their carriage off from the main square that afternoon, its roof now weighed down with gifts and trinkets they'd picked up as well as the bulky luggage necessitated by travelling with three small children. As a belated apology Bonnie sat up front with Cinnamon Bun, Finn on her lap pretending he was driving the candy horse and whooping with glee every time Cinnamon Bun cracked the whip.

"Where to, princess?" the big candy man shouted over the clatter of striped sugar hooves.

"The coast. We've got a couple of beach huts booked and we're going to teach the boys to swim."

She didn't want to alarm him with the details of the other activities she had planned on the coast. Marceline had quietly pointed out that while it was safe was well as practical for the boys to learn swimming, Phoebe wasn't allowed anywhere near water. She couldn't regulate her own flame temperature and the couple of accidents she'd had where water had touched her skin had left her shrieking in pain, blue Shielded flames flickering dangerously as her unstable elements tried to neutralise the damage. But nevertheless it was important Phoebe wasn't left out of any activities her brothers got the opportunity to try; just because she was different didn't mean she shouldn't be allowed to have just as much fun as anyone else. So up on the roof with the rest of their things Bonnie had packed her flame proof metallic suit, the one she'd worn that shameful day to return Phoebe to her neglectful father. Thinking about the choices she'd made that day still flooded the back of her throat with bile. This was just one more thing she could do to make it up to her little girl.

So when they finally arrived at the beach and had unpacked as much as they needed she waved Marceline and the boys off, watching them splash around in the shallow waves under the protection of her wife's huge parasol. Finn seemed quiet and unsure but he smiled timidly when he saw his Mom standing knee deep in the water, willing to let the waves touch his legs so long as she was there too. Phoebe struggled a little in her hold, wanting to go join her brothers in the surf.

"Not right now baby, I've got something really lovely planned for you. Just the two of us." Bonnie told her, zipping up the front of her flameproof suit with the hand that wasn't holding the wiggling little girl and flipping her helmet into place.

"Be safe." Cinnamon Bun told her with a slightly confused smile, bewildered gaze taking in the metallic suit. She just nodded and smiled in reply then turned around with her daughter tucked into the crook of one arm and set off in the direction of Phoebe's surprise.

It wasn't a long walk up to where they were going but it was all uphill, of course. Phoebe whined and fussed the whole way but Bonnie knew she'd brighten up when she saw where they were headed. She wasn't disappointed.

They peered over the rim and down into the heat haze together. Phoebe's eyes went wide and huge, her flickering blue flames grew brighter as she realised what she was looking at.

"Mama? For me?" she asked in awe.

"That's right sweetie. A whole volcano, just for you."

Cinnamon Bun would probably have exploded in fear if he could see them shimmy down the crater side together and land waist deep in molten lava. Even with the suit on Bonnie was uncomfortably hot but she refused to not let her daughter have the same childhood experiences as her brothers just because she was different to them. She wouldn't have left the volcano for anything, so long as Phoebe was having fun.

"Ok sweetie, I'm going to teach you to swim. This can't be too much different to a water park, right? So I'll just lower you down- oh!" she broke off as Phoebe flung herself into the lava head first, yelling excitedly and splashing around like she'd been born in the centre of a volcano. For all Bonnie knew, she had been.

After all of her carefully planning it seemed there was no teaching required at all, Phoebe swam like a fire fish. So they just spent the rest of the afternoon playing together, making waves in the lava while Bonnie explained the basics of fluid dynamics and Phoebe listened raptly. As the sun went down she fished her little daughter out of the lava and wiggled her in the air a little to shake off the cooling drops of molten rock. Phoebe laughed and laughed the whole time.

"Did you have fun? I did. This was the nicest volcano I've ever been swimming in." Bonnie told her as she hauled them back up her specially designed heat proof cable.

"I swammed Mama!" Phoebe told her excitedly, pressing her hands against the metallic suit and hugging her mother tightly. Bonnie wasn't sure which of them had the bigger smile.

...

It was late and the children were sleeping, it was pure luck that they'd stayed up talking instead of anything else and so were fully clothed when the knock came at the door of their beach hut.

"Who do you think that is at this time of night?" Marceline frowned, putting down her glass of wine and floating across to the door. When she wrenched it open for a second she saw nobody.

"Wenk!"

She looked down. Gunther was standing on their doorstep, holding out a letter with Bonnie's name on it. They hadn't really made any firm plans about surnames but it still felt a bit weird to see a letter addressed to 'Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum', Marceline had expected it to say 'Bonnibel Abadeer' for some reason. It bothered her a little and she wasn't sure why.

"Oh, a letter for me? It must be pretty important to need delivering at this time of night." Bonnie said, coming forward and taking it from the penguin.

"Wenk." Gunther agreed.

Bonnie's frown grew deeper as her eyes scanned the letter, it only made Marcy worry more and more. Finally she folded it back up, face set in angry lines.

"I have to go. The Flame King is calling an emergency meeting of Ooo royalty tomorrow morning to investigate Phoebe's custody, he's contesting your right to invoke the Fostership Law because you don't have a Vampire Kingdom anymore and you were engaged when you took her and knew you had two other children in your care. It's just ridiculous! There's a clear legal precedent, he can't hope to win!" she finished it with a frustrated growl, clenching the letter in her fist angrily.

"He can't do that! He wants us to expose what a neglectful asshole he is to the entire world? Fine! Then we'll fight him!" Marceline growled, her face even paler and grimmer than usual. "I'm not letting him take our little girl away from us! We'll put the kids in the carriage and send them home with CB tonight while they sleep, he can go and fetch Tree Trunks once he's back and-"

"You can't come with me." Bonnie cut her off, voice tight and hurt. "You're presence hasn't been formally requested and you'll force them to hold the rest of the proceedings in secret if you come, because apparently they're scared you'll intimidate the witnesses. This is such crap! It's just because you're a vampire, they're so prejudiced!"

Marceline wanted to storm and yell, she wanted to break things. But she was acutely aware of the three heartbeats in the next room, peaceful and slow in slumber. As angry as she was she didn't want to wake them and upset them, not when there might not be any reason at all. Bonnie said the Flame King had no legal precedent, that he didn't have a chance of succeeding. That was exactly what Marceline herself had thought when she'd freed Phoebe, there was no way he'd ever be able to take her back. But something else that she'd said that day came swimming back through her crystal clear memory.

 _"He's not going to come after me in a rush. And if he does and the whole thing gets dragged before Ooo royalty then what's he going to say? That yes ok he neglected and imprisoned his daughter but I was on a technicality when I released her? So then the royals will consult and decided that maybe I should have custody, maybe not, but either way he definitely shouldn't."_

It had seemed so obvious then, simple. She'd broken Phoebe's prison and taken her away and damn the consequences. But what if they did consult and decide someone else should take Phoebe? What if there was some arcane legal framework he'd discovered or a loophole in the law? What if they never saw their beloved daughter again? And then something completely unrelated occurred to her and she whirled back to the doorway.

"And why are you delivering this letter in the dead of night? Why isn't it being sent with the new Flame Kingdom Ambassador or someone?" she demanded of Gunther.

"Wenk! Wenk wenk wenk!" he gesticulated wildly as he continued to hoot and tried to mime something complicated.

"Ice King's fort is being used as a neutral location for the hearing; usually we'd meet in the Candy palace but the other royals feel that I'd struggle to stay objective in this case and I'm afraid they're right. I won't be allowed to vote and I'll simply be acting in your defence as a character witness." Bonnie replied tearfully. "I don't know who else they'll call as witnesses but you need to get some of your own together. We don't have time to contact Tree Trunks or Flambo, you should summon your father and see if he can sway them. Or maybe not; perhaps reminding them that your Dad is lord of the underworld might hurt your chances. I have to go! I can't be late!" she finished with a moan, pulling Marceline into a tight brief hug.

"We'll head back to palace and wait for you there. No need to scare the kids, no need to scare anyone. We'll just say that you were called away on some business and we didn't want to continue without you. I'll fly the kids back in the morning after breakfast. Cinnamon Bun can manage the carriage alone." Mareline replied. Her voice was strained and sounded odd to her ears but she had to keep it together, dammit Phoebe needed her to stay calm. Memories of the night the boys had been snatched flooded her, fears that her family was going to be ripped apart again.

Bonnie had already grabbed her overnight bag and packed a couple of things. She briefly went into the children's' bedroom and spoke in a low quiet voice that even Marcy's sensitive ears didn't quite catch. When she emerged a couple of minutes later there were fresh tear tracks on her cheeks but her face was set and determined. She kissed her wife goodbye and followed the little penguin to where an ice carriage stood waiting for her on the sand drifting up to the cabin door.

It was cold and dark inside and the moment the door was closed Bonnie felt the vehicle lurch to life and begin to swiftly move off in the direction of the Ice Kingdom. She leaned out of the window and raised her hand in farewell to the beach hut where Marceline still hovered in the doorway, ashen face plainly showing fear and anger. She took one last look at her wife as the carriage swept her out of view and felt her resolve set. Nobody would be tearing their family apart any time soon, they're have to step over her cold dead body to get to Phoebe if that's what it would take.

By her calculations Bonnie would have a couple of hours to travel and collect her thoughts but it would still be a long while off dawn when they arrived so maybe she'd be able to trick herself into getting a little sleep before the meeting began. Trust Flame King to choose an early morning hearing when she was halfway across Ooo. He was probably hoping she wouldn't make it on time. She was surprised and worried when not so long after they set off the carriage suddenly juddered to a halt.

"Gunther? Is there a problem?" she called anxiously.

"Wenk!"

Bonnie stuck her head out of the window to look out onto the dark road, staring into the blackness but seeing nothing that could explain their unscheduled stop. She shivered again. Ever since the night when she'd been kidnapped by Ja'an she'd had a prickle of unexpected fear at finding herself alone in the dark. Only her wife's presence allowed her to sleep restfully most nights now and even then she was increasingly troubled by nightmares of golden eyes and razor sharp claws.

"What's goi-"

She never saw the ice club coming, it cut her off mid-sentence.

"Goodnight princess." the dark form of Ice King said as she slumped unconscious against the carriage window frame.

 _..._

 _It was the Grimma_ _lk again. Those weird golden eyes stared out of the blackness and she could hear the deep purring in anticipation of her agony. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, and this time there was nowhere else the cat demon needed to be. No respite from what was to come._

 _Her left wrist burned with remembered pain, head throbbed with the impact of red furred fists cracking against her skull. She'd made herself to forget what had happened when she was taken, pushed it so far into the depths of her mind that she hadn't been forced to examine it in all its horror, just locked it away to fester like a dirty wound. Now the memories came flooding back, a thick torrent of vivid horror._

 _Ja'an had hit her again and again, told her it was for forcing her to watch Marceline fuck her, for taking what she didn't deserve. Told her that if her master didn't want her alive she'd have beaten her to death right there on the study floor. At first she didn't want to give her attacker the satisfaction but as the blows kept coming she'd given in and screamed until her throat was raw and bloody. But her study was sound proof and everyone was on the other side of the palace. Nobody had come to save her and she was too dazed from the initial impact to her head to save herself, to fight back. Ja'an kicked her in the stomach over and over, called her a whore, told her how she would cut her tongue out of her dirty whore's mouth. Bonnie hadn't even known who the cat demon was, hadn't know what she was talking about._

 _And now she was back, alive again, ripped off arms replaced with the dead tree roots and dirty maggots that had filled the dark holes in the Lich when they'd fought him._

 _"Hello again pretty-in-pink. Does your whorish mouth still scream as sweetly as it kisses?"_

 _Those monstrous arms grew and grew, a pulsing writhing mass of dead flesh and roots and earth. She tried to run, to move at all but she was frozen to the spot as she had been in the Lich's cave, unable to speak or even move her eyes as the filthy roots reached towards her. They filled her mouth and nose with dirt; she couldn't breathe, couldn't scream or even whimper. The pain was back, growing every second. The ragged burning wound where she'd ground her shoulder deeply against the broken window to leave a trail tore itself open; she felt the agony of teeth ripping through her wrist, the deep lacerations slowly gaping again on her face and neck that no amount of sugar paste healing could ever completely erase. She was shaking, rocking from side to side with the taste of terror and earth and far too much of her own blood in her mouth. Golden eyes stared dispassionately at her and that awful purring was still filling her ears along with the desperate rasp of her own lungs trying to draw air through the suffocating mass over her face-_

Suddenly it all disappeared, she sucked in a huge lungful of cold precious air as something collided painfully with her cheek. She woke with a gasp.

Gunther was pushing her, trying to roll her over onto her side from where she'd been face down in her pillow. He seemed to have slapped her, he was raising one flightless wing threateningly again.

"Wenk!" he hooted, relieved.

The little penguin waddled away now that she was awake and Bonnie sat up groggily, heart still hammering from the intense dream. It had been too real, too many things she thought she'd forgotten still flooding back into her mind.

The back of her head throbbed with the familiar sensation of having been recently knocked out and suffering yet another concussion. She figured that must be what had triggered the awful nightmare, she'd dreamed about the cat demon constantly since her abduction but never as vividly as that. For a second she could still feel the razor sharp claws pushing into her skin and she shivered; it was cold and she was confused and alone, unable to calm the irrational terror that her frenzied heartbeat was flooding her veins with.

She was in the same ice cell as always, she'd been there often enough to recognise it at a glance. The concussion was making her struggle to focus again but behind the fog of pain in her head she was furious.

"Ah princess, you're awake!"

Ice King stood over her, he must have let himself into the cell when she was staring at the ceiling, trying to get her breathing back under control. How had she not heard him? Bonnie shook her head carefully, trying to dispel the alarming fuzziness that still lingered in her brain.

"Ice King. I'm going to assume that the letter about Phoebe's custody was just a ruse to get me here? That's a new low for you; abducting a woman during her honeymoon by pretending that the royals are going to take her daughter away."

He just shrugged and smiled distantly. Bonnibel wondered if the crown was making him even crazier, if somehow he had fallen even deeper into madness. Normally Ice King's plots weren't so elaborate; if she'd thought about it at the time she would have questioned why anyone would choose the Ice Fort as neutral ground for the meeting, why an actual royal messenger hadn't been sent to retrieve her, why Marceline wasn't allowed at the proceedings despite being the one who had invoked the Fostership Law to free Phoebe.

But they'd both been too concerned with worry for their little girl, hadn't thought about the obvious holes in the letter she'd received. It had been on official paper and at a glance had looked legitimate. Sooner or later Marceline would think about all those irregularities though, wouldn't she? And Ice King hadn't been secretive about where he was taking her. So it was simply a case of waiting to be missed and rescued, then dealing with the psychological fallout for her wife because every time Ice King tried something like this Marceline lost another small part of her trust in other people. He might be a tragic figure and important to Marcy but Bonnie couldn't find it in herself to like the old man, not when he did things that hurt her wife. He didn't mean to but that only made it worse.

Somehow thinking about it rationally didn't help the way it had in the past though. Despite all of her usual cool logic Bonnie was unreasonably terrified, still filled with a fog of panic.

"Can you stand, princess? I'm sorry I had to hit you, I didn't think you'd come willingly and I needed the very best. I did consider other options but we all know you're the world expert."

"Ice King, I have no idea what you're talking about but you'd better let me go now or there'll be hell to pay. When my wife finds me here you'll have to answer to her and I don't think she'll be in a forgiving mood." Bonnie warned him with a frown, willing herself not to shrink back from him. She was _not_ afraid of Ice King, dammit.

"I'll let you go as soon as you serve your purpose." he told her with a manic grin. It wasn't right, Bonnie thought in bewilderment. He was going off script, he was supposed to say something about forcing her to marry him or some other insane scheme to make her fall in love with him. This was new and worrying.

"I don't know what you- hey!"

He'd sent a stream of ice magic around her hands, forming frozen manacles that let her move them a little but not enough to do more than reach for something directly in front of her. Then the cell door was open and he was dragging her upright, out into the lounge and then down the slippery staircase that lead to his basement. He ignored her yells of protest the whole way, smiling smugly to himself as though her struggles were amusing. Bonnie stopped fighting and stared around in mounting horror when she saw where he'd taken her.

The basement that had formerly housed relics from Ice King's past had been transformed into a lab, or at least into a bad stereotype of a mad scientist's laboratory from old pre-war films. There were flasks and glassware bubbling potentially toxic fumes in various colours and she longed to move them into a fume cupboard and go fix the Bunsen burners underneath them; the idiot had used a yellow flame on the glassware- _her_ glassware, on closer inspection- and the bases of the flasks were already black and ruined. Why had he stolen her centrifuge machine? That was what was making the strange noise that her unconscious brain had interpreted as purring; someone had set a sample on a slow spin without adding a counterbalance and the delicate mechanism was grinding itself ragged inside the machine. It would be completely ruined if she didn't switch it off right away. Bonnie ground her teeth in frustration; what the hell was the crazy old man doing donking up all her equipment?

"I need you to science something for me, so I recreated a laboratory for you." Ice King told her, spreading his arms to indicate the various broken and abused equipment he must have stolen from the palace while she'd been away.

"You idiot, you've ruined yet another one of my labs? And you think I'm going to do anything at all for you? You're crazier than ever, Ice King."

"I never expected you'd do it willingly, princess." he told her with a gleam in his eye. "In fact, I was forced to take measures to ensure you'd do what I asked. You see princess, watching you get married to somebody else was painful for me. I want what you have; I want the love of a wife. But none of the babes I brought home ever stayed and I realised I can do so much better. I can make a wife instead of trying to get anywhere with those cold bitches. I mean, I'm a nice guy! What more do they want? But it doesn't matter anymore. You can make life, you made Lemongrab! So you can make me a wife."

Bonnie's head was spinning by the time he finished speaking. It took her confused brain a moment to unjumble his meaning. Build a custom-made wife for Ice King? He must think she'd gone as crazy as he was. She opened her mouth to tell him so but he spoke over her, ignoring her protestations.

"You don't want to, I understand! As I said, I took measures to ensure you would help me." And he indicated to a distant corner of the room, she hadn't even noticed the thick ice sheet covering it or the slight blue flicker beneath the twisted surface. But her heart went cold with terror the moment her eyes landed on it. Every evening after Story Time she kissed that same flickering blue light goodnight, tucked it up under soft blankets and wrapped her arms around her wife while she sang a lullaby.

"PHOEBE! What have you done to her you bastard? How did you get her? She's just a baby! SHE CAN'T REGULATE HER TEMPERATURE, THE ICE WILL KILL HER!"

Bonnie hadn't known she could scream it so loudly, the entire ice cave shook with the echoes of her cries. She tried to run forward and free her daughter but Ice King was still holding her manacles and she went sprawling onto the floor, dizzy and nauseated. The fall made her bite her lip hard and spit blood; for just a second she was staring at the cat demon's wide golden eyes again instead of Ice King's pale ones. Her mind raced; what could she actually do? She was weakened and injured and now bound by his ice magic, even if she had her hands free was she strong enough to smash through the icesheet without harming Phoebe? Just like last time her conclusion was grim.

"You utter bastard. I'll do what you asked. But if you hurt my daughter I will kill you myself, with my bare hands."

He just beamed down at her like she'd graciously accepted a polite invitation to a tea party.

"Let's get started then, I'm sure you're eager to see what I've collected to build my wife from."


	6. Chapter 6

**Usch, I meant to update yesterday, I even got home from work early and totally meant to post but then I ended up just going to bed instead because twelve hour nightshift. Sorry guys.**

 **A quick note; I was worried that maybe I'd written Ice King a little too sinister compared to cannon and that he might be seen as a strawman villain. Then I remembered that in cannon he legit cut pieces off princesses and sewed them together into a wife. So this isn't exactly out of character.**

 **Content Warning: psychological torture, head injury, plot devices.**

* * *

It didn't take long for Marceline to figure out something was wrong but out of fear of losing her daughter she held back on taking action. The first thing she'd done on arriving home the next morning was contact their closest allies and see if anyone could give her any information about the royal council meeting; who was there, what kind of witnesses they'd managed to come up with. She'd nearly crushed her phone in anger when they all said the same thing.

"What emergency meeting? We weren't aware of any meeting."

"No representatives from Lumpy Space have been summoned."

"Whoever is sitting in judgement hasn't asked me to attend; I don't know who it could be. Is Phoebe in some kind of trouble?"

And so instead of pacing nervously on the sand outside their beach hut she was pacing nervously in the throne room, ignoring Peppermint Butler's attempts to calm her down or talk to her. The children were back in the nursery with Matilda and Zoe, Marceline didn't feel able to stay calm enough not to upset them with her growing anxiety.

As the day drew on Marceline felt more and more like a caged animal. She didn't want to interfere and cause them to lose Phoebe entirely but she was eaten alive by worry, unable to stay still or think rationally. She'd reread the letter several times over and while she found the whole thing odd it was just like the grand council to call a meeting out of the blue, just like them to rule that she couldn't attend and to deliberately keep those Kingdoms they were closely allied with out of the whole thing. She'd called everyone she could think of and now she was running out of ideas.

After the sun had finally sunk below the horizon Marceline whirled on Peppermint Butler as he was trying to press a mug of red hibiscus tea into her hands, fangs growing angrily as she caved in to the urge to vent her frustrations.

"What the hell is going on up there? Why hasn't Bonnie called? They can't still be debating!"

"Highness, I agree entirely. The grand council do not usually debate after sunset for fear of- um, interruptions." he finished sheepishly.

"Vampire attack, you can say it. I know. And the sun has set and she hasn't called. Something's wrong up there, someone's keeping her from contacting me. Fetch your magic mirror, Peps."

Instead of arguing or asking how she knew about his enchanted mirror the little candy man just bowed and hurried off to his rooms. When it had become apparent that Ice King was targeting the princess specifically Peppermint Butler had entirely legally acquired a magic mirror that showed him the inside of Ice King's cave so that he could more easily send somebody to retrieve her Majesty. Over the years he'd been forced to use it more and more frequently to locate her as his own demon magic was weak and using powerful locator spells left him exhausted for days afterwards. Besides it was usually Ice King that kidnapped her, Peppermint Butler could count on one hand the number of times the princess had gone missing and been found anywhere that wasn't Ice King's prison. Most recently when she'd been abducted and used as bait by the Lich's assassin, once when she'd lost track of her days while out taking scientific samples in the wildlands and a couple of times when she'd unexpectedly stayed the night at Marceline's cave and forgotten to let him know. He unlocked the door of his private room and grabbed the mirror, muttering the trigger word as he sprinted back along the corridors and down the stairs to the throne room. What he saw made his blood run cold. He flung the doors back open, already speaking in a rush before he'd gotten anywhere near the twin thrones.

"Marceline! Ice King has her and she's hurt! There's nobody else around, he's gotten her in the ice cage and there's blood on the back of her head. You'd better get up there quickly!"

One second Marceline had been standing staring at him, grey face paler than he'd seen it since the business with the Lich. The next she was gone, out of the window so fast he hadn't even seen her move.

"Please bring her home safely." Peppermint Butler murmured to the empty space the queen had stood in a second before, wrapping his arms around himself to control the fear making him begin to tremble.

…

"Just hang on baby, I'm gonna get you out of there as soon as I can."

Bonnie murmured it so often through that day that she thought she'd probably be saying it in her sleep for the rest of her life. Phoebe still hadn't uttered a sound and was it just Bonnie's imagination or was the blue flicker looking smaller than it had before? Her hands shook with fear and exhaustion and she couldn't help stealing long glances to the corner where her daughter was trapped, even when she should be concentrating on the science.

With half her equipment damaged it was a tall order to build a full person. Bonnibel was still feeling the effects of the blow to the back of her head, her entire being swirled with fear for Phoebe and anger at Ice King; she was furious and terrified and so helpless she could have screamed from the frustration.

There was ancient human DNA and that was helpful and the sapphires she could probably use to channel light through and act as optical receptors. But most of the other things were useless; how was she supposed to use a jar full of wilted flower heads? Or one of the glittering lanterns they'd had at her wedding reception? It made her seethe quietly when she recognised that many of the items that had been stolen had come from her own storage rooms; even the table cloths and fabric swatches had been taken. Who was even guarding the palace? Gunther and his crew shouldn't have been able to get in and take her stuff, dammit.

She didn't have a lot to work with so she figured that maybe Ice King's new wife would be a little short, not that the old man would care. Bonnie had assembled as much as she could of the new body using the materials provided to Ice King's exacting specifications. Sapphires for eyes, full lips in a soft lavender colour, a beautiful face of palest blue silk. There hadn't been enough strands of silk thread to cover her head in long hair so Bonnie had been forced to cut each strand into half inch long stubs and painstakingly sew them into place on her head. It would grow out soon enough, Ice King hadn't cared so long as she had hair of some kind.

"I'm nearly finished." Bonnie told him exhaustedly, mixing the last of her chemicals into one of the few undamaged flasks and carefully agitating it to make sure the emulsion held together. The recipe for creating life was very finicky and her hands were shaking badly, she was terrified that if it didn't work he'd hurt Phoebe. Bonnie could take being beaten herself so long as he left her daughter alone. Her head throbbed where he'd knocked her unconscious but she'd have happily let Ice King stamp on her skull if it meant Phoebe was safe.

Ice King hadn't offered her anything to eat and she doubted she'd keep it down anyway. She was too consumed by fear for her little girl to feel her own hunger although it was undoubtedly contributing to her tremors along with her concussion and terror. She felt distant and light headed, like she could pass out at any minute.

As she finally reached over to pour the complex mix of chemicals onto the body she'd assembled something caught her eye and she yelled in surprise.

"SHE'S NOT DONE YE-"

But in his excitement Ice King had lunged forward to hug the lifeless body to himself with a cry, knocking the flask from her trembling hands and spilling it unevenly onto the cloth golem she'd assembled and halfway over his own beard. With mounting horror Bonnie shoved him hard out of the way, exhausted eyes taking in the damage he'd done.

Most of the body was pushed to one side, it hadn't been touched by the precious life-giving mixture at all. The head and tops of the shoulders were beginning to shake a little as the potion took effect and Ice King's beard was rustling sinisterly like it was taking on a life of its own. It _was_ , Bonnie realised in a blind panic. She'd created something that would know nothing but a short life full of pain. That wasn't right; even though it had been done under duress she was responsible for the creature slowly taking shape before her.

Grabbing the scalpel she'd been allowed to use under supervision Bonnie lunged forward and hacked off the chunk of Ice King's beard that was slowly coming alive. The old man fell back with a cry of fear, perhaps he thought she was going to stab him. But she whirled away from him and swiftly cut away the material that hadn't touched the potion, instead shoving the beard inside the cloth and cutting rough arms and legs from what little remained, struggling as it quivered. She had to work quickly before the thing developed a nervous system and felt the terrible pain of being only half formed.

Finally she pushed a chunk of the snow they'd used to stuff the thing down into the small body, trusting that the potion would use it to create internal organs and guide it into a shape that could live. The head was so much smaller now, the body little enough to lift with one hand. With a chill jolt Bonnibel realised that her subconscious had been entirely focussed on Phoebe and that she'd formed the golem into a familiar shape. But it was too late to change it, the chemicals had fully taken effect and the thing was moving; it was alive.

Palest blue eyelids opened and sapphire eyes stared at her. Silken lavender lips opened and a thin wail filled the cave, bouncing and echoing around the frozen walls.

"What did you make me do?" she whispered to him in weak horror.

…

The flight to the Ice Fort only took Marceline a couple of minutes, maybe less. She was driven by panic, flying by instinct because the rational part of her brain was shut down entirely by fear. And she'd have known her way to Simon's lair in her sleep. Sometimes when she was feeling nostalgic she'd go up there at night, invisible, and watch him shuffle around muttering to himself. Sometimes she set free whatever poor princess he'd imprisoned that week, always careful not to fade back into view so she didn't have to suffer through their awkward gratitude or explain why she was there. Most people thought Simon's place was haunted now anyway. If she thought about it she might agree; it was haunted by the ghost of Simon Petrikov.

It had grown almost completely dark as she landed in the entrance of his fort and she took the steps two at a time, not quite trusting herself to stay airborne if she came across something terrible. Simon had been crazy for a long time but he'd never hurt a captured princess before, this was something new and worrying. Why would Bonnie be hurt? And she had no proof he'd hurt Bonnie deliberately anyway; there could be plenty of reasons for her to have blood matted into her hair, maybe it had been an accident. Marceline told herself that over and over, not believing it even once.

At first glance there was nobody around in Simon's lounge. A movement in the ice cage caught her attention and she was across the room and ripping the ice bars away instantly.

"Marcy." Bonnie's voice was weak, her whole body was weak; she barely managed to sit up when she saw her wife. A moment later the ice cage around her fell apart under ruthless undead hands and she was being swept up into Marceline's arms again. It was so similar to the night Marcy had rescued her from the forest floor, too much like she'd been mauled by the cat demon again, like she could still taste her own blood in the back of her throat. She burst into shameful tears, burying her face in her wife's neck.

"M-marcy, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, I didn't want to! He- he f-forced me." she stuttered out around her sobs, hands clenching painfully against Marceline's skin.

Marceline froze in horror. No. Simon wouldn't have, would he? With bile rising in the back of her throat and terrified horror almost thick enough to choke her Marceline carefully took a deep lungful of the frozen air around her wife, smelling for any sign that something truly terrible had happened, relieved beyond words when she could find to trace of his touch on her skin.

"It's ok love, it's alright. Hey, I'm here now. We can go home."

But Bonnie shook her head and pulled back, avoiding her wife's gaze.

"H-he's got Phoebe, I couldn't help her. I think she might be... she didn't make a sound all day." she whimpered, shame and guilt thickening her voice. Marceline's brow creased in confusion.

"Phoebe's at home with Matilda and Zoe, last I saw they were feeding her little sips of gasoline and watching her flames dance. That was less than half an hour ago, the children are all safe. What did he do to you, Bonnie?"

But Bonnie just shook her head again and squeezed her eyes closed.

"Downstairs. He's got her downstairs." she whispered faintly.

"I'm going to see what the hell is going on then I'm taking you home, alright darling? You just sit here and try not to move your head, I'll be back in a minute."

It wrenched her heart to leave Bonnie sitting there looking so traumatised and disoriented but while there was any chance that Simon was holding their daughter hostage Marceline had to go. She had no idea what was happening but she wasn't above hurting someone to find out, dammit Bonnie had been injured again and that was just not ok. Simon had better have some answers for her.

She hurried down the stairs and finally came out into his basement. It wasn't a place Marceline liked to visit; too many memories down there that dug their claws into her heart when she accidentally cast her eyes across some relic of their shared past. Simon had kept reams of notes on so many things and when his mind began to wander they'd disintegrated into the ravings of a mad man; she hadn't been able to look at any of the clippings he'd kept although she told herself from time to time that she probably should.

The lights were on in a room just ahead, a pale yellow glow spilled out of the doorway into the corridor illuminating a heap of things he must have moved out from the room when he turned it into whatever it was now. She tried not to notice that one of them was a photo of herself aged around seven, hugging the original Hambo and beaming up at the lens. She remembered the day he'd taken that photo, she remembered it all so agonisingly clearly.

They'd gone to an old fashioned amusement park on a pier because it was probably her birthday; she hadn't been completely sure but it had felt to her to be around the right time of year for it. After Simon had swept the area and declared it free of zombies and mutants he'd helped little Marcy onto the back of one of the wooden horses on the carousel and pushed with all his strength until the ride moved, slowly creaking to life while she laughed and yelled with glee. The first time she'd ever flown had felt much the same; a deep thrill of freedom and joy that had surged through her when her feet left the ground. But that day on the carousel with Simon had been somehow even more magical. He'd found her a bag of cotton candy from somewhere and they'd released the plastic ducks from the side show into the ocean and watched them bob off into the distance in a big yellow flock.

 _"Do you think they'll come back again next year, Simon?"_

 _"I'm sure of it, darling! Ducks always come back to their homes, even the plastic ones."_

Marceline pushed the memory away with a shudder of disgust. Her Simon had died a long time ago and now the leftover husk that he used to inhabit had hurt her wife. She had to find out why, no time for getting caught up in memories. Soundlessly she crept towards the open door, stopping just short of the spilling light and listening to the low mutter of words coming from the room.

"…beautiful, you were supposed to be my wife! Oh what will we do with you now, Victoria? Well don't worry darling, I still love you. I'll look after you, you'll see. Nobody will take you away."

What the hell was he doing now? Curiosity overcame caution and Marceline entered the room, taking in the trashed lab equipment and spilled chemicals. Then her eyes flicked to the old man sitting on the floor and if her heart hadn't already been dead for almost a thousand years it might have stopped right there in her chest. Because Simon was on the floor next to an overturned medical bed and he was holding a small pale child. He looked up when she entered the room and hugged the baby closer to himself.

"NO! You can't have her, you've stolen enough children!" he accused with a tremor in his voice.

Marceline didn't know what to say, she was glad she'd chosen to land or she might have fallen out of the air with shock.

"I... what? You kidnapped my wife and forced her to create a baby for you? Why? Simon, what did you do?"

She wanted to be angry, wanted to scream at him. But numb shock was wrapped too tightly around her, she tried to tell herself he wasn't the father figure from her childhood but she knew a small part of her Simon was still in there somewhere and whatever else he may have done she knew he hadn't meant to hurt anyone. He never did, it was just unfortunate that people got hurt by his actions anyway. Like Bonnie, like her. People who didn't deserve to be hurt.

"Stay away from my daughter!" he growled, scrambling backwards across the floor with the baby clutched tightly to his chest. She squalled and wriggled; he soothed her with a careful hand stroking down the side of her face. "There now little love, nothing to worry about. Daddy's here."

"Simon…" Marceline started brokenly. Some heavy sensation was swirling through her, something she didn't want to examine too closely in case it turned out to be some twisted jealously. "Oh Simon, I'm not here to take her away from you. But I need to know why, why would you ever do this?"

"She was supposed to make me a wife! She was supposed to do it right!" he cried. "And now I have a daughter instead and, and, how am I suppose to be a parent to anyone? But she's so beautiful, she'd perfect. And she's mine. She loves me."

Yeah, when she looked close Marceline could see that was the truth. The baby- Victoria, he'd called her- was snuggling into his lopsided beard and seemed happy. A flicker of movement across the room caught her attention and without any conscious thought on her part she was desperately ripping away the ice in the corner because the flickering blue light really did look like Phoebe was trapped-

It was a snowman. A snowman wearing a Flame Shield, but still nothing more than a chunk of frozen water shaped vaguely into the same size as a child almost two years old. Again Marceline felt like she should be angry and she probably would, soon enough. But she was too busy being flooded with relief that nothing terrible had happened to her daughter.

"So you faked the council meeting, you tricked Bonnibel into coming here and you blackmailed her with Phoebe's safety into using her science to create a wife for you. So how did you end up with a daughter instead?" Marceline struggled but managed to keep her tone at least a little gentle, knowing she wouldn't learn anything if she gave into the growing angry roar in her head and lost it completely. Her skin itched to transform but she repressed the urge ruthlessly until she discovered what she needed to know.

"She tricked me! She said she was finished and I went to hug my wife and she spilled her life potion on my beard and the body's head! She grabbed it and made it into Victoria before the potion was done making her alive and now even if I wait until she's grown she can never be my wife, we're kin! She's got my DNA in her blood, she was made with part of my beard. So now I'm her father instead of her husband. It's all got messed up." he told her morosely.

Marceline had never felt so out of her depth before. Even when she'd had the Lich's decaying hands around her throat and had been a second away from true death she'd still felt more in control than she did right at that moment. Phoebe was safe, she wasn't getting taken away from them. Simon had accidentally created a daughter for himself. Bonnie was upstairs having some kind of breakdown; Marceline didn't know much about medicine but she knew her wife and Bonnie wasn't acting the way Marceline would have expected from a simple blow to the head and one of Simon's routine kidnappings. She flailed mentally for a few seconds before her brain threw out a couple of ideas that might stand in lieu of a coherent plan.

"Right. Ok. Here's what's going to happen, Simon. You are going to stay here and I am going to send someone to check it's safe for you to look after Victoria. I am taking my wife home and if you come near my family again for any reason, ever, I will hurt you. Badly. Grod knows I don't want to but you've gone way too far this time. Please just... don't ever contact me again. OK? We're done."

He stared at her as she strode out of the room, face averted so he couldn't see the angry tears shining in her eyes. Marceline made her way upstairs, too shocked and confused to even think about flying until she needed to move Bonnie.

"Phoebe?" her wife asked the moment she saw her again.

"Safe at home. He tricked you with a Flame Shield cast on a snowman."

"Oh. And the baby?"

"Will stay here for now. I'll send Stefan to read his thoughts and see if he's capable of looking after her. If not… then I guess we'll have to-."

"No!" Bonnie was shaking her head in a not entirely rational way, shivering violently with her arms wrapped hard around her knees. "I won't take her, I won't! I can't. He hurt me, he forced me to make her, I can't take her. I'm sorry Marcy. No, please, don't make me."

Marceline came forward and tried to draw Bonnie into her arms but she shivered away from the contact, pale pink fingers nervously running over and over the thin lines of faint scarring on her neck left by the Grimmalk's claws.

"It's ok, love. Shh. I wasn't suggesting that we take her. Apart from anything else I don't think it would be safe for Phoebe to have a creature of ice around her all the time and I can't face having to see what Simon did to you every day if she was with us. No, we can't take Victoria. If we have to then we'll make other arrangements, see who can raise her. But not us."

Marceline shook her head sadly, understanding now at least in part why Bonnie was so scared. The last time she'd had sole responsibility for the welfare of a neglected baby she'd locked Phoebe in a lamp to keep her safe from her father and she'd never really dealt with the guilt from that. And now she'd accidentally created a child that would have the dubious honour of being the Ice Princess, daughter of a madman who might forget who she was at any second. If Marceline knew Bonnibel half as well as she thought she did then if anything happened to that little girl Bonnie would blame herself forever as being ultimately responsible. That must be causing serious damage to her still fragile mental state.

"Hey, I'm going to pick you up now, alright? I'm not going to hurt you, nobody is going to hurt you again. Can I pick you up, is that ok?"

After a moment Bonnie nodded, tears leaking quietly down her face as she raised her arms and allowed herself to be lifted gently into the air. They flew home slowly, Marceline taking extra care not to jostle Bonnie. When they arrived home Marceline let them quietly into the darkened bedroom directly through the balcony doors, shoving a quick thought through her Sire link to Zoe.

"Come on babe, let's get you cleaned up." she said quietly, helping Bonnie to the bathroom and examining the injury on the back of her head. It was a long ragged tear in the skin, still oozing blood slowly when she touched it. The bone underneath didn't feel quite right to Marceline's sensitive fingertips, like it was a little pushed in. She washed the blood from Bonnie's hair carefully and wrapped a towel around her wife's head before helping her shakily undress and climb into the bed. She'd call the doctor soon to get the injury looked at but for now Bonnie needed to rest. There was a small mental enquiry in the back of her mind and she sent a confirmation. The door opened timidly and Marceline came forward to meet Zoe.

"We'll talk more later, I need to look after her tonight." she whispered, resting a steadying hand on Zoe's. The other vampire smiled worriedly and nodded.

"You know best. The little one dropped off not long after you left but she's here."

Marceline carefully took a sleeping Phoebe from Zoe's shoulder and smiled her thanks before quietly shutting the door and bringing her across the room to her Mama.

"I was so scared for you." Bonnie told the sleeping baby when she was lowered into her arms. "You know I'd do anything to keep you safe, right? I did something bad, I think. But I did it for you, even though you weren't really in any danger. I love you so much, Phoebe. Please forgive me when you're older, when you find out. Please remember I did it because I love you."


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter should have been up last week but it needed a full rewrite to make it Stakes compliant. In fact most of the bits that didn't work have been moved to a later chapter and changed, I hate having to cut anything out. Still pretty damn dark but it will be getting lighter soon. Once this particular part of the story is concluded time will be moving faster and things will get progressively less dark until- well, you'll have to wait and see.**

 **A quick note, I never completely decided what song Marcy is actually humming in this chapter but I kinda headcannon that it could be Because by The Beatles, because if we assume the bombs dropped some time in the late eighties/early nineties (given the technology Ooo appears to have in cannon) then it makes perfect sense that someone who collected pre-war vinyl would be more than passingly acquainted with The Beatles. The way Bonnie and Marcy harmonize at the end of What Was Missing sounds very much like that period of Beatles recordings to me. Also they're awesome, and Because is a really calming song.**

 **Content Warning: PTSD descriptions, torture flashbacks.**

* * *

A Vampire Guard did not question his queen's orders, even when sorely tempted. So Stefan simply bowed and left for the Ice Kingdom that night, tasked with probing Simon's troubled mind and discovering if he posed any threat to his infant daughter, if he would be capable of looking after her.

Before he left he allowed himself to lower the barriers on his telepathy and assess the mood of his queen. He was not at all happy with what he found. She was shocked to her core and deeply hurt, shaken by what had happened and angry at herself as though she could have somehow prevented it. When her thoughts had punched into his mind he'd experienced a sensation akin to free fall; a sort of emotional spiral of crushing anxiety and helpless rage that felt like falling out of the sky.

He'd felt that sensation before. The very first time he'd ever met Marceline the sensations of her feelings were similar; lost and alone and hiding out in a cave, half feral from hunger and waiting for a meal to wander by. Not as sharply edged with panic as she was now but with the same kind of self-loathing and despondency. She hadn't cared if she drank from humans or vampires or zombies, if she'd had her way she'd have sucked him dry and been tripping garlic balls on his blood for a week afterwards. Luckily Stefan was much stronger than a hungry baby vamp, even with her demon heritage she was no match for him. He'd wrestled her down and fed her from a safer source and once she'd finished hissing and swearing at him they'd become friends. Still, it had taken a long time for that free fall feeling to disappear completely from her mind. She'd taken a lot of work but he was proud to have helped her transform from half wild cave dweller to the intensely focussed woman who'd eventually assumed the vacant throne she'd inherited form the Vampire King.

He'd felt it again hundreds of years later, the night the Citadel had been overrun as he and the other remaining loyal vampires had held the rebels off long enough for the queen to escape north across the ocean and find sanctuary in her formed homeland, the place she hadn't returned to since her bite. That was the last time he'd seen her until her wedding day. Cassie had packed a bag of her most precious possessions and bundled it into her hands, all but shoving her out of the window into the night and promising in her usual bizarre way that they'd come find her. Those were very nearly the last words out of Cassie's lips, after that the rebels broke through and he saw the troubled vampire crumble to dust as Isaac and his cronies pushed a stake the length of her arm through the girl's thin chest. Poor Cassie hadn't stood a chance, sometimes in his nightmares he still heard her brother's anguished scream as he watched her die. Stefan didn't know where the boy had ended up or if he was dead now too; he'd left shortly after the battle and taken himself off to his desert island to brood about Marco's death and his part in losing the war.

He'd not been there to see it but Stefan suspected that had he been able to feel Marceline's thoughts when her wife had been kidnapped by the Grimmalk then she'd have felt like she was hurtling to earth with the force of a comet. And now she was falling again, thoughts tumbling freely like her mind was caught in a whirlpool. He wanted to stay and help her, counsel her as he had so many times in the past. But she had ordered him to leave so like a loyal subject he did.

First of all he'd stopped by the market in town to pick up a list of necessities pressed into his hand by the shady little butler, who it seemed was also terribly concerned with Ice King's ability to look after his daughter. Once he'd purchased the items on the list he flew north and scanned the horizon for the icy mountains.

There was the tallest one, and that strange face-cave must be the entrance to the Ice Fort. He landed soundlessly and took a deep sniff of the frigid air. The whole place smelled strongly of penguins and confusion.

Stefan had been ordered not to interfere unless he saw something truly awful that could not wait for Marceline to assess. He was a little uncomfortable with just standing by and observing, making decisions about other people's lives without knowing them well, but his queen trusted his judgement so he supposed he should have a little self-faith.

He let his often ignored invisibility slide up and cover him, feeling that strange sensation of intangibility as a kind of creeping coldness on his skin. The queen used invisibility as easily as she smiled and the girls were both partial to it too but Stefan had never been comfortable with that particular vampire ability. He preferred to slide into the shadows or shape shift into one of his habitual animal forms; he supposed he could have tried to shift into a penguin but he'd never practised that form before and doubtless the old man knew his pets well enough to notice a stranger amongst them.

Uncomfortable and apprehensive Stefan hovered carefully further down into the ice cavern. His awareness flickered with two human-like pulses long before he saw anyone, easy to distinguish from the penguin heartbeats thrumming all around them. The old man was sitting in his chair reading quietly from a children's book, the girl was on his knee staring in fascination at the pictures with her thumb in her mouth.

"What is real? Asked the rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle? Real isn't how you are made, said the Skin Horse. It's a thing that happens to you. You're real, Victoria. You're real and you're my precious girl. You know that? We'll finish the book tomorrow night, someone looks sleepy. Are you hungry, darling? We'll get you something lovely from the fridge, come on."

Well, Stefan was reluctantly impressed. He'd not known any copies of The Velveteen Rabbit even existed anymore, much less that the crazy old ice wizard would be so sentimental with his choice of reading material. Carefully, because infants could be so sensitive to mental intrusion, he lowered the shields on his telepathy and let Victoria's mind wash over him.

Comfort. She was comfortable, a little hungry but no more than any other child anticipating their supper. She was content and secure, she was peaceful. He felt the deep thrum of love for her father like a pulse against his mind. Stefan smiled despite himself, he was no keener than anyone else to separate the new family if it could be avoided. He let the mental shields back up and watched impassively as the Ice King fed his little daughter some crackers and cheese and a little carton of juice. She didn't look newly born like he'd expected, the infant appeared to be around a year old in human terms although it was so hard to judge when she was a magical creation. It seemed the Ice King had already bought most of what was required for a child, the bundle of baby supplies waiting outside the cave weren't as desperately needed as everyone seemed to think they would be. That was encouraging.

"Goodnight darling, sleep well." Ice King said, tucking her into a small cradle and kissing her forehead. He hummed her a lullaby and stood for a couple of minutes watching her eyes slide closed, a tender smile on his face. Once it was obvious that Victoria was soundly asleep he turned and looked Stefan dead in the eye.

"Your invisibility slipped after a couple of minutes but I didn't want to alarm her by pointing you out. Your queen sent you to watch me."

It wasn't a question. Stefan nodded anyway, no point in pretending Marceline wasn't deeply concerned by the situation.

"She thinks you're too old and crazy to look after your daughter. And she's furious with you for creating Victoria in the first place, for kidnapping her wife and causing her fragile mental state to shatter again after she was beginning to heal from her last trauma. Do you know what Bubblegum has done since she arrived home? She has laid in her bed and cried quietly, she refuses to see anyone and she touches her scars over and over, tracing their outline with her fingertips and crying some more. She was healing, she was almost ready to be back to normal after what the Grimmalk did to her. And your brutal kidnapping brought it all back to the front of her mind, made her revisit it all again. Marceline isn't going to forgive you for that any time soon."

"I didn't mean to hurt her." Ice King muttered, shuffling his feet awkwardly.

"You didn't leave intentional scars on her the way the cat demon did. But you hit her, beat her unconscious and left a fracture in her skull, you kept her prisoner and made her think you would murder her daughter in the most savage way possible. You destroyed what should have been the happiest time of her life. On a personal note, I will leave your shredded bloodless corpse to rot in the desert if you ever come within a thousand paces of any member of the royal family again. The only reason you're alive now is because the queen is too kind to leave your daughter an orphan. So this is your warning, Simon. For now Victoria seems happy and peaceful. If that should change then your life is forfeit. I will find you and I will make you wish you'd died easily along with all the other humans a thousand years ago. Just for one more night I will taste blood, and you'll beg for death by the end."

Without waiting for a reply Stefan turned and left the cave. He hadn't detected one ounce of remorse in the old wizard's mind the whole time he'd been there. It made him feel sick, nausea that shouldn't even exist without a functioning digestive system nevertheless churned through his guts. Without a backward glance he flew through the darkness back to where his queens waited in need of him.

...

"Honey, won't you eat a little bit of something? I'll bring you anything you want, just tell me what you'd like."

Bonnibel just shook her head and hunched the blankets further up over her shoulders, shivering again. She hadn't been able to get properly warm since she'd gotten home.

"I'd like to sleep." she managed after a moment. Marceline nodded sadly and ran her hands down her wife's arms, aching to do something more, something to ease her pain. But Bonnie didn't want anything, didn't want to talk or eat or hug. Perhaps sleep would help.

Carefully she helped her wife lie on her side, pulling an extra blanket up around her because her shivers still hadn't dissipated and she seemed so weak. It ached in all kinds of awful ways to see Bonnie lie there listless and dispirited.

"Do you want me to stay?"

Bonnibel nodded carefully, eyes squeezed tight shut as a fresh wave of tears leaked out from the corners.

Gently, as lightly as she knew how, Marceline let her weight down onto the bed and wrapped an arm around her love's trembling shoulders. After a few minutes of silence where she allowed Bonnie to let her tears flow she started to hum, very lowly, an ancient song that was more beautiful and melancholy than anything she'd ever managed to create. Nothing she could come up with seemed appropriate anyway but she knew that just letting the soft melody wash around the room was calming for them both. She wanted to let the words flow in too but it was probably better to just allow the magic to ease her wife to sleep with soothing images drifting across her mind; moonlight on water, the slow turn of seasons, the interconnectivity of all things. At first she didn't think it had worked, Bonnie still felt so tense. But after a while her breathing settled and deepened, heartbeat slowed to an even steady pulse and finally some of the tension began to ease from her body.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time to bring Phoebe up to see them when they returned, to make absolutely sure she was uninjured and happy. But Bonnibel hadn't been able to keep her tears in and she was too scared to hold their daughter for long, not wanting to accidentally cry on her and hurt her. She hadn't wanted to see the boys, hadn't wanted to talk to anyone at all since their return. And Marceline hadn't wanted to force her to speak, she'd open up when she felt comfortable and not before.

 _Stefan's back, he's waiting for you in your sun room._

Zoe's mental message arrived directly into the back of her brain via the Sire link. Reluctantly Marceline pushed back up into the air, letting her gaze fall hesitantly on her sleeping wife. She'd only be away for a few minutes though, just long enough to see what Stefan had to say, then she'd come straight back. She brushed a gentle kiss against Bonnie's shoulder before slipping out from the bedroom as quietly as she could.

It was late and the corridors of the palace were deserted. Floating through the empty rooms Marceline felt almost like a ghost, like she was haunting her own formerly happy life. The sunroom was dark too and completely useless at this time of night. But until she set up her own study and reception rooms for official vampire business it was their de facto meeting place.

Stefan was hovering silently in the middle of the room, he lowered the dark hood of his cloak when she entered and curled forward into a deferential bow.

"Highness." he murmured quietly in greeting, uncoiling as he spoke.

Normally she'd have laughed, told him not to be such a stuck up buttface, not to talk like some fancy pants noble. Normally Stefan would have laughed back and they'd have enjoyed the same joke they'd shared for centuries. But it felt appropriate now to be Lady Abadeer the Vampire Queen, deal with this as official royal business because she wasn't sure plain old Marcy could keep it together.

"Stefan. Tell me everything."

"He has no remorse, he doesn't realise that he's done anything wrong. But he loves the child and he's provided for her, there's no trace of any uncertainty in his mind where she's concerned. He's perplexed about your anger and sadness. He doesn't remember why you'd hate him for subjecting another innocent to his madness, he has no idea that he has ever known you."

She nodded, she'd known that a long time ago. Simon never remembered her anymore, not even for a couple of minutes at a time. She hoped she could miss and cherish Simon while still despising the Ice King; they were two very different people. It still felt like a knife through her guts every time he looked right through her though.

"Do you think the girl is safe with him?" she asked after a long minute of thought.

"She seems perfectly safe for now. In the future... who knows? But that's the same for everyone. Nobody knows how things will fall out. For now we need to focus on healing your lady, let the Ice royals take care of themselves."

Reluctantly Marceline nodded. If Stefan said Simon was capable of looking after his daughter then she would trust him; Stefan was the best judge of character she knew. She was glad the Simon problem was resolved at least and she wouldn't have to see him again any time soon. Now she could focus on helping her wife heal, if she could only work out what to do to help her.

"Let me talk to her." Stefan said quietly.

"You know I hate it when you read my mind." Marceline replied with a small frown. The big man just smiled remorsefully and rested his hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently when he felt the built up tension there.

"If you would just open up and talk to me I wouldn't have to." he replied with the ghost of his old good humour in his voice. "You're a mess, Marcy. You've not slept either and you're hungrier than you realise. Here, I brought you some apples." he picked up a bowl she hadn't noticed from one of the coffee tables and held it out to her expectantly. Marceline sighed and accepted one with ill grace. She didn't feel hungry but if Stefan said she was then who was she to argue? Mostly she felt like she was one more worry away from a full blown panic attack. She didn't want to admit it though, she had to stay strong.

"It's sweet of you to worry about me, but I'm holding it together. I've had worse stress." she replied carefully.

"Not in the last couple of months, not since the Lich and all of that. And you did beautifully and you know we're all proud of you, but before that? The Citadel, nobody's happy with how that ended. Disappearing and building a whole new life somewhere else isn't gonna work this time." Yeah, she should have known better than to try to be evasive with a telepath. But dammit he was right, her usual methods of running away from conflicts and hoping they resolved themselves without her interference wouldn't work this time and there wasn't an obvious enemy she could hack at with her axe or throw into a space-time singularity.

If she left Bonnie to heal without interference there was no telling what would happen, it might destroy their marriage. They'd only taken their vows just over a week ago, the thought that this could be the end filled her with cold dread. Marceline was acutely aware that she'd promised in front of most of the royalty in Ooo to be faithful, loving, supportive, to always put her wife first and lend her strength whenever she needed it. Well Bonnie certainly needed it now. Her wedding band was still shiny and sat a little awkwardly on her finger, she wasn't used to the feel of it yet. Marceline wanted to get used to it, she wanted to wear it for so long that the silver was worn thin where it rested against her palm. She wanted them to have years together, centuries, and that meant dealing with the fallout from everything that had happened since before she'd found Finn, since she'd hurtled off into the night after screaming those awful words at the only person who made her feel whole. Had they ever really dealt with that? Possibly not, there was more she could say about it, more she could explain and apologise for.

Her ears pricked at a distant noise. Was that-?

She was away, flying so fast she blurred with the speed of it, bouncing off the walls in her haste to get back upstairs to their bedroom. The soundproofing that had been installed years ago was no match for sensitive vampire hearing.

...

 _This time the claws were thrust into the back of her skull, slowly pushing their way through flesh and bone until they prickled into her brain and caused electric jolts of agony to shoot down her extremities. She tried to pull away but the Grimmalk held her tighter, arms wrapped around her like a lover's embrace, purring harder with every gasp of pain that left her lips._

 _"You're going to die so prettily." the cat demon said, but with Ice King's voice. "Suffer and die and make a pretty dead bride for me."_

 _She could taste her own blood again, it felt like she was going to drown in it. She lifted her arms to try to push the Grimmalk away but she recoiled in horror; she had no hands. Where her arms ended there were just mangled red stubs that leaked blood and gore every time she moved them, ruined ribbons of flesh that peeled back from the bone and seemed to twitch with a life of their own. While she was busy staring at them in terror the Grimmalk pulled her closer, close enough to smell the fetid stink of rotting flesh that rolled across her face with every deep purr. The claws hooked around something inside her head and pulled back, ripping a piece away from the back of her brain._

 _It was a lamp, a little lamp with a little blue flame in the middle, so familiar and precious that she felt her heart skip a beat. Phoebe looked so tiny, so fragile, curled up alone and shivering in her prison._

 _"Mama?"_

 _She heard the echo of Ice King's manic laugh somewhere off in the distance and without warning it was snowing thickly all around her, drifting up against her legs and swirling around the top of the tiny lamp. The flakes drifted softly down and as each one touched the little blue flames Phoebe screamed and screamed in agony and Bonnie screamed too, horrified, unable to move because Joshua's demon blood sword was being driven through her stomach again and again by some merciless invisible force, blood pouring from her in sticky waves-_

Cold hands were shaking her awake and she let out another strangled scream as she opened her eyes. The darkness in the room made a momentary shadow mask across her wife's face, like a death bruise, and Bonnie curled away from her into the pillows.

"Don't touch me!" she gasped out between hysterical breaths. And oh, Marceline had brought Stefan along too, it was mortifying that he should see her like that. Bonnie raised her hands to her face, overwhelmed with shame and noticed that her cheeks were still wet. She must have been sobbing in her sleep. At least she still had hands, not those awful red stumps from her nightmare.

"Shh love, it's ok. I'm here." Marceline tried to soothe her, but it was a hollow kind of comfort. She'd asked Marcy not leave and she'd still fallen straight into a night terror, even with her magic filling the room. It would be easy to blame her for the nightmare but Bonnibel knew that it was a product of her own damaged mind. She cried harder, curling into a ball of misery and digging her nails into her scalp.

"I'm l-losing it." she stammered around her sobs, this time not pulling away when cool arms encircled her and pulled her into a gentle embrace. After a moment Bonnie let her arms wind around Marceline too and gripped the back of her shirt tightly, pulling her as close as possible and breathing her wife's familiar scent deeply.

"Bon, Stefan wants to talk to you when you feel a little better. Is that ok, love? He just wants to help you heal." Marcy whispered in her ear, stroking one cool hand soothingly across her head.

Marceline's fingers brushed the place the Grimmalk had ripped at her brain in her nightmare, the place where Ice King had broken her skull. Bonnie shivered but she didn't pull away from the gentle touch. She told herself as sternly as she could that her head was whole, there was no tiny lamp prison inside her brain to disgrace herself with, no tiny Phoebe screaming in terror and pain as she was buried under the snow. After a moment she nodded, still reluctant but willing to accept that she needed the help. Stefan had already seen a thousand times more of her panic attack than she would ever have wanted, it couldn't get more mortifying than it already was to just see what he had to say.

"Let's get you cleaned up then." Marcy said with a gentle smile, dabbing at her eyes carefully with the corner of her sleeve. It was odd, Marceline caring more about her appearance than Bonnie did, and she surprised herself with a strange gurgling chuckle. It sounded half choked but it was almost pleasant, almost like she could appreciate the humour in it.

"Your Highness? I know you're reluctant to speak to me, perhaps it would help if I told you a little more of my history." Stefan said quietly, drifting forward from the doorway. "Before my bite I was a doctor, in a distant Kingdom that hasn't existed for a thousand years, but still a doctor nonetheless. I specialised in speaking with men who'd come back from wars, with women who had been badly abused and mistreated by their husbands. I suppose these days I'd have been called a psychiatrist although I always saw myself as more of a friend, listening to them when nobody else would, helping them talk through their feelings. I can't claim any real talent or knowledge compared with even the most rudimentary medical textbooks that have been written in the eleven hundred years since but I have tried to keep up to date with the new discoveries and improvements in my field. Will you consent to talking to me, your Highness?"

She nodded after a long moment; that made a lot of sense. The big man had the gentle air of someone who cared deeply and the confident bearing of a professional. She was surprised she hadn't seen it before now. And Marceline trusted Stefan, she didn't trust easily so that in itself was a considerable endorsement. With a small smile he settled himself into the air and prepared to listen very carefully.


	8. Chapter 8

**I haven't updated this fic in forever, I'm so sorry guys! But if it's any consolation I've already started work on Full Circle and a couple of Foundlingsverse one shots, so they should be on the way in the near future. A quick aside; I was recently made aware that there's a character in Vampire Diaries called Stefan. I had no idea, I've never watched it and I know nothing about that character. Any likeness is purely coincidental. Ah well, hope I didn't confuse anyone with that.**

 **Content Warning: PTSD issues, healing process.**

* * *

"It's been a month and she's still having nightmares and headaches. When's she going to get better? Are you sure you know what you're doing, Stefan?"

The big vampire sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose to ease a little of the tension building in his head. He had perfect vampire memory, he hadn't forgotten at all how impatient Marceline was. He'd just naively hoped that maybe she'd learned to curb it a little in their years apart, apparently he'd been wrong.

"People take different lengths of time to heal, Marcy. Her Majesty might not be well again for quite a while, she had two very severe blows to the head only a few months apart and suffered significant emotional traumas. You need to be aware that she might not ever be completely the same as she was before her brain injury." he replied as gently as he could.

"But Simon didn't hit her that hard, he just knocked her out. I don't understand why she's so much more ill now than she was when the Grimmalk attacked her."

And that was the question, wasn't it? It could be that she was suffering significantly more problems due to the previous brain injuries too, a second concussion so soon after the first could cause a lot of damage even if it didn't seem as bad. Equally it could be psychological, triggered by the remembered stress response from the first trauma. A month wasn't anywhere near enough to time to be completely sure either way but Stefan was leaning towards psychological; Bubblegum wasn't displaying any of the usual concussion symptoms now except for terrible stress headaches and they could be explained equally well by the extreme anxiety that ran like a restless undercurrent through almost all of her thoughts. He sighed again and shook his head.

"It's impossible to say. I think it's psychological, after everything she's been through she's simply struggling to deal with her feelings of helplessness. She's used to being intimidating, politically powerful, being capable of looking after herself. But anyone can get taken by surprise. It doesn't matter that she's normally physically stronger than the Ice King if he has a club and she's looking the other way. I think all we can do for her right now is listen to her fears one by one and try to reassure her as best we can, try to increase her sense of personal safety. She is getting better, slowly."

To his relief Marceline reluctantly nodded, still frowning. She flipped over in the air to let some of the late evening sun filtering through the special vampire-proof glass of her sun room warm her back instead.

"So how do we increase her sense of personal safety then? A guard dog or something?" she asked, only half joking.

Stefan smiled thinly, he'd already put a plan in motion.

"I have a present for her, something better and more subtle than a big slavering dog. Besides, Jake wouldn't take kindly to some dumb animal rather than a Dog being around his beloved Mama, not if there was guard dogging to do and he hadn't been asked to do it. I was waiting to run it past you first, is all.

She turned to look at him curiously and Stefan gave her his best enigmatic smile. "If you'd been awake before now I'd have already shown you, but I understand that you needed to sleep."

Jake had kept Marceline up most of the night running a fever and coughing with every other breath; he was a little better when Tree Trunks had come that morning but given his Mom had been trying to sleep at night and stay awake through the day they were both pretty exhausted now. Even chicken soup hadn't helped. Marceline hadn't been able to do much more than soothe him and hold him, sing to him in a low voice and try to hold a cool hand against his too-warm forehead. She hadn't wanted to wake Bonnie and ask for help, not when her wife was still so ill herself. Jake had whimpered all night and asked her over and over where Mama was, she hadn't been able to think of a decent excuse and just told him Mama was sick too.

Stefan held out something small in his palm and she examined it closely, swearing softly when she finally recognised the soft aura glowing around it. Yeah, that should do it.

"There's a trigger word?"

"Waiting to be set, I thought it would be best to let her choose."

"Awesome. No time like the present. Come on big guy."

As she swooped from the room with a grin he was treated to a warm glow in the back of his mind telling him via his telepathy that he'd managed to make his queen happy. That was its own reward but Stefan was hoping he could do the same thing twice and help Bubblegum too.

...

Bonnie was asleep when they entered the bedroom, curled up on her side protectively around a lump in the blankets that was revealed to be Jake when Marceline carefully shifted the duvet to one side. He opened one bleary eye and smiled at her, still smelling a little ill but much better than he had been.

"Hey Mom. Mama's sick too." he whispered scratchily, quietly so he didn't wake her.

"Mhm. Does Miss Trunks know you're here?" she whispered back.

"Yep. Said I c'n snuggle wi Mama."

Their voices must have been too loud because Bonnie shifted and opened her eyes with a frown.

"Oh. Hello puppy, how are you feeling?" she asked Jake in a sleep rough voice, scratching him gently behind the ears.

"Poorly." he informed her solemnly, "Like you."

Marceline held her breath, hoping that wasn't going to upset her wife, but Bonnie just smiled at Jake and petted him a little more.

"But we're gonna get better, aren't we Jakey? Your cold will get all better and my poorly head will too. Then we can play together again." she replied quietly, stroking his ears.

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about that if you have a minute, love." Marceline said, drawing her attention away from Jake. "Hey Jake, do you wanna budge up a little so I can sit down with Mama?" she added to the puppy. He wiggled over and Marcy settled into a comfortable hover just off the bed.

Stefan was waiting in the doorway, unwilling to intrude when they were spending time with their son, but Marceline gestured him forward and Bonnie offered him a smile of greeting when she saw him. She'd grown used to spending time around the big vampire in the last few weeks and it was a relief to him that her thoughts no longer turned immediately to what a mess she must look every time he saw her.

"Highness, you look well." he said with a deep bow. "I brought something that I thought might help ease some of your worries."

He held out the object and she took it from his palm, reaching over Jake's head as he looked up curiously. It was a ring, heavy and silver, with a thin green band running around the outside. She turned it over and over in her hands but it didn't reveal its secrets to her.

"Wossat Mama?" Jake asked inquisitively, stretching his neck up to get a better look at it.

"I'm not sure, Jake." she replied. "Why don't you ask Uncle Stefan?"

"Stefan?" Jake asked, turning his eyes to the vampire.

"It's a magic ring." he said simply. "It's made of two different magical components. The silver is an anchor point, so long as you keep it on you'll always be able to find your way home, it'll warm up and move your hand in the direction you need to go whenever you start to worry that you're lost. If you're too far away or you're unable to move it will even transport you, but to do that will exhaust the ring's magic so it's single use for transportation. You can tune it to an anchor point here, or on another person if you wish. For example, it can use your wife's wedding ring to anchor to, or a foundation stone here at the palace, depending on your choice. The green is a solidified poison. It works with a trigger word. All you have to do is touch it to the skin of your enemy and say the word, it works on everyone but the undead. Even demons."

He felt a flicker of concern in Bubblegum's thoughts that her son had heard details that might upset him, but it was smoothed over after a second with reasoning that Jake needed to know that the world was sometimes a dangerous place. It made him smile a little proudly; she must be healing better than Marceline realised if she was able to use her old logical reasoning instead of following her panic instinct.

"Thank you." Bubblegum murmured, staring at the ring. "I suppose it'll be useless to try to take it apart and see how it's made?"

Stefan had already anticipated that the first thing she'd want to do would be to scientifically test it and see if she could replicate it. He shook his head; the ring had been a commission piece and the wizard he'd employed to make was very aware that spilling its secrets to anyone would result in his lifeblood draining out of two new holes in his neck. Besides she wouldn't find a way to replicate it with science, whatever Bubblegum thought she knew about magic and science being the same thing Stefan knew better. He'd seen the thoughts of both wizards and scientists.

"It would completely destroy the magical structure to tamper with it in any way." he lied smoothly. Marceline shot him a thankful glance. She knew he was lying too but neither one of them wanted Bubblegum to start messing around with that poison, it would kill a candy person in a matter of seconds just the same way as it would kill anyone with a pulse.

"Pup, do you wanna come pick some roses with me for Mama?" Marceline asked suddenly, sweeping the puppy up into her arms and tickling his tummy. He wiggled and laughed, nodding yes. "I think there's still some of the pretty pink ones in bloom in the greenhouses. Do you think they'll make her feel better?"

Stefan received a pointed prod in his telepathy as she spoke to her son.

 _Tell her how to set the trigger while we're gone. No need for the little one to hear that part._

"We'll be back in a bit." she said to her wife, dropping a kiss onto her hair before flying out of the window with Jake.

Stefan glanced up; the sun had set while they'd been talking. Marceline was perfectly capable of remembering not to wander around in the daylight without her hat and gloves but Stefan supposed he would never quite give up being overly protective of her. He'd spent too many long centuries standing guard by her door, warding away threats and assassins while she slept. He'd never be able to completely erase the habit now.

"The trigger word?" Bubblegum prompted him gently as he stared off out of the window. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that her wife could read Marceline's intentions just as well as he could despite not having the gift of telepathy.

"Oh, yeah. Forgive me." he murmured in embarrassment, coming forward to show her.

...

Things settled into a comfortable rhythm, weeks blurring by into months with a routine of official business, working in her lab, spending time with the family and intensive therapy sessions with Stefan. Bonnie could honestly say that by the time the cold weather really began to bite she was feeling quite close to being back to normal. She still had the most terrible migraines from time to time, still had days where her irrational fears were so overwhelming that she struggled to leave her rooms and still shivered in remembered fear if she found herself alone in the dark but Marceline was careful never to leave her unattended for longer than a couple of minutes at night and the bad days where getting less and less frequent. She was more grateful for that than she know how to express. The therapy sessions were brutal; more often than not she spent a few hours crying afterwards but she was healing, every session marked a small improvement despite how hard it was. Stefan was a better therapist than he gave himself credit for and she was deeply grateful to the big vampire for his help.

The longest night of the year found them cuddled together under the blankets, Marcy annotating some sheet music with a small frown on her face as she analysed the tune in her head and Bonnie reading a rather dry academic text on the subject of genetic variation in crop plants. She tried to focus but her attention kept wandering; it was interesting in theory but most of the plants the paper had been written about grew better in other Kingdoms anyway and they weren't wanting for food. With a sigh she put the paper down and snuggled more closely into her wife.

"Marcy?"

"...m?"

"Would you believe me if I said I was bored with reading?"

"...change it to an F sharp and make it more... wait, bored with reading? No. Not even for a second. I know my Bonnibel, you'd read the back of a milk carton for an hour if there wasn't anything else to hand. I can only assume you're trying to trick me into something, possibly even more reading." Marceline looked around when Bonnie didn't reply, a soft smile on her lips. "Hey, I was kidding. You've been staring at that stupid paper for ages and it's probably the most boring thing ever written. Even a brainlord like you needs to take a break every now and again."

"It's not the most boring thing ever written." Bonnie mumbled, embarrassed. "It's very important and interesting science, it's just not really relevant to us right now. And I thought we could do something else instead."

"Such as?" Marceline replied with a slightly predatory smile, all thoughts of composition thoroughly forgotten

"Nothing dirty! Mind out of gutter, please, you big pervert. I thought perhaps, if you wanted to, we haven't been out flying together in ages. Do you want to go out for a bit?"

"Aw seriously? You've got a lot of nerve to call me a pervert, little miss 'ohhh-please-bite-my-shoulder-again'. But yeah, we can go flying. Be nice to get out into the fresh air."

"You're a butt." Bonnie informed her wife with a smile. "But I think you'll find that these days it's _Mrs_ 'bite-my-shoulder', actually. See I married this sexy vampire lady-" she broke off with a laugh as Marceline lifted her up into the air, wrapping the blankets more tightly around them and making for the balcony doors.

"Ok smart ass, we're going flying."

Bonnie wrapped her arms tightly around her wife's neck and they swooped off into the night. The air was cold against her cheeks but her blankets were held firmly in slim grey hands around her and they were thick enough to keep most of her body warmth in even as they accelerated together into the starry sky. As the palace fell away below them in a spiral of twinkling lights she felt the ever present cloak of vague anxiety that so often clung to her these days slip away too. She rubbed the heavy silver ring that fit snugly over her right thumb; she was the safest person in the world when she was in her wife's arms a mile above the ground, there was nothing at all to be afraid of as they hurtled through the freezing air together. Bonnie rested her head lovingly against her wife's shoulder and let out a deep sigh of contentment. Sometimes she'd been scared she might never get better, might never be the same woman Marcy had married. But she was feeling so much healthier now, so much more like her old self. She still dreamed of claws pushing through her skin or snow drifting mercilessly around her legs but they were vague and fleeting dreams, no more substantial than any other nightmare. Mostly she woke straight away from them and curled closer into her wife then fell asleep again easily, ignoring the darkness of their bedroom.

"I love you." she said to Marceline, over the wind their flight created.

"What?"

"I said I love you!"

"Huh? Can't hear you, babe!"

"I SAID, I LOVE YOU, MARCELINE ABADEER!"

The echoes of her yell bounced off the hills and rolled away into the night along with her wife's delighted laughter, filling up the whole landscape with noise and making Bonnie's cheeks flame with embarrassment.

"You tricked me! I take it all back, you're a total dilweed." she muttered into Marcy's ear.

"Nah, you love me, no take backs! And now the whole world knows it!" Marceline replied, slowing and turning to grin at her wickedly.

Bonnibel couldn't think of anything to say to that so she just pressed a kiss against her wife's cool lips, smiling despite the heat still filling her face. They were slowly descending, Bonnie realised after a few minutes of slow kissing. She looked around as they touched down on the shore of Lake Butterscotch. There was a picnic blanket and a hamper waiting for them, candles and an ancient wind-up portable record player softly crooning to itself in the darkness.

"How?" Bonnie breathed, confusion warring with delight. "I was the one who asked you to go flying, how did you set this up?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Marceline replied smugly, putting her down carefully onto a pile of big round cushions that Bonnie recognised as coming from the sun room. She knew how, if she thought about it.

"The girls. You can order them to do things telepathically through your Sire link. So that little stunt up there was to give them time to sneak out here before we arrived and get this midnight picnic ready."

"Nah, that stunt was because I like hearing you shout how much you love me from the rooftops. But it was a happy coincidence; it meant Zoe had time to arrange the cushions just right."

"Thank you, Zoe." Bonnie addressed the night, but she got no reply.

"They're back at the palace already, too far away for me to contact right now. But if you want I'll tell them thanks when we get back."

"If we get back." Bonnie corrected her with a smile. "I'm not sure I'd ever want to leave somewhere as lovely as this."

"Ah right, then I'll have to get someone to send Tree Trunks and the kids down here tomorrow morning, we can be a family of lakeside dwelling hobos. I mean, very briefly, before I burn to death under the unfiltered sunlight. Did I ever properly thank you for the sun room, by the way?"

Bonnie smiled again, face warm from an entirely different kind of embarrassment.

"Yeah, you did. Three times in a row, once with your hands tied behind your back. Pervert."

"I didn't hear you complaining. And I think you'll find that's _Mrs_ Pervert, actually. See I married this gorgeous Candy princess..." Marceline replied, grinning even more widely. But that reminded her of something she'd been meaning to bring up, something that had just been waiting for the right opportunity. She cleared her throat carefully, a little self-conscious now that the perfect moment had arisen. Bonnie had been rooting around in the hamper, pulling out the treats the girls had hastily grabbed for them, but she stopped and peered curiously at her wife.

"Spit it out then, is something bothering you?" she asked after a minute.

"I... yeah, I guess. A bit. It's stupid though." Marcy replied, shifting a little uncomfortably. "I was just thinking, like, did we ever agree anything about surnames? Because it shouldn't matter really but you know vampires are compulsive about marking their belongings and it sometimes bothers me that you have a different surname from me. Not that I see you as my property! Grod, that didn't come out at all how I meant it to! I just mean, you know, since we're married and all. You know?"

But Bonnie was smiling at her again, polishing a bright red apple thoughtfully on the edge of her blanket.

"Hmmm. Queen Bonnibel Abadeer. I like it. You know that most everyone is gonna just keep using my maiden name though right? They're far too used to calling me 'Bubblegum' and the list of people I allow to call me 'Bonnie' is pretty short, in fact it's really just you." she replied.

"But I'd know, even if you still used your maiden name for official business." Marceline said, trying very hard not to let it come out as a whine. "And besides, I'm not taking your name. No, sorry, no. Marceline Bubblegum is not a thing that is ever happening, not in any of the infinite possible worlds in the multiverse, not even in the alternate reality where I'm a squirrel-fish and you're a sentient greetings card. No."

Bonnie had just raised a sandwich to her lips and almost choked on it.

"A sentient greetings card? Seriously? Oh Glob no!" she gasped between coughs. "That's hideous, I'm not going to allow that! And double-barrelling it is even worse. No, you're not allowed to have anything to do with my maiden name."

"That's a relief. But... I dunno, now I hear it out loud. It's a bit cute. What if I wanted to be Marceline Bubblegum? I could be sickly sweet and wear lots of pink and cuddle with all your squishy brainless subjects, you don't know, I might want that!"

It was a struggle to keep her face solemn but it was totally worth it to see the horror in Bonnie's expression.

"You just said it was never going to happen! And it's not! Bonnibel Abadeer. Nothing else. Ok?" she managed after a moment. Marceline just laughed and let her face split into a grin again.

"Yeah, ok. I can live with that. What about the kids? Do we honour their birth names or do they take the family name?" Marcy's smile slid a little as she thought about that. She wasn't sure it would be entirely appropriate to erase their birth identities; they were still the same people they had been when they were born, no matter who adopted them. Bonnie looked lost in thought, chewing contemplatively on her cheese salad sandwich.

"Perhaps," she said after a while, swallowing her bite, "we can use their surnames as middle names? Like, Finn Mertens Abadeer. Jake Dog Abadeer? Phoebe Abadeer, because I don't know what her birth surname was and I highly doubt she'll want to keep it when she's older."

"We could give her a middle name of her own." Marceline suggested. "How about Phoebe Clementine Abadeer?"

"Sometimes I think you do these things just because you like annoying me." Bonnie replied with a pout. "Clementine is an awful name, unless she actually is a little sweet citrus fruit. And she's not. I mean, she is sweet and without her shield she is orange, but she isn't a fruit. But I like the idea of picking a name for her. Serious suggestions, please."

Marceline thought for a while, catching the apple Bonnie tossed her without looking and draining it thoughtfully.

"Would you think I was silly for being sentimental about it?" she finally asked. Bonnie shook her head. "Then maybe we can name her after my grandmother. I barely knew her, I only remember that she smelled like jasmine and wore a lot of really beautiful jewellery. But her name was so lovely, she was named after a goddess. So how does Phoebe Lakshmi Abadeer sound?"

"It sounds gorgeous, love. I've never heard the name before. Tell me about the goddess?"

Marceline searched her distant, pre-vampire memories for a second.

"To be honest I don't know so much about her. She was a goddess from a different culture, my grandmother had moved halfway around the world when she was pregnant with my Mom so I never knew much about the Kingdom she came from. But Lakshmi was the goddess of wealth and prosperity I think, she was beautiful and fierce and associated with the festivals of light. It seems like a pretty perfect middle name for Phoebe."

"It does, it's lovely. You've never told me about your grandmother before, or the Kingdom around the other side of the world that she came from. You're just full of surprises, even after all this time." Bonnie murmured, scooting closer and sliding her arms around her wife's waist.


	9. Chapter 9

**So now that the main plot arc at the start is finished time is going to speed up a bit, we're about six months further along than the last chapter here. Just in case anyone doesn't remember Eberhardt, he'd the old man who's bowtie Marcy drinks the colour out of in Henchman. I just headcannon that they're old friends and she taught him piano when he was young. Seems like she'd be friends with most musical people in Ooo. Also this chapter has a chunk of backstory that I had to change to be Stakes compliant, which was kinda difficult so I guess 'the Vampire King was a lying dick' is sorta believable, right? I hope you agree, anyway. For the purposes of this story there were lots of other vampires to the place south of Ooo and the Vampire King lied to Marceline because he didn't want to die. Seems like something he'd do.**

 **Content warning: family fluff, cuteness, Stakes compliant-ish backstory, more cuteness.**

* * *

 _Happy Birthday to you,_

 _Happy Birthday to you,_

 _Happy Birthday, Prince Finn,_

 _Happy Birthday to you!_

He squealed delightedly and tried to grab the two lit candles on the top of his cake. Marceline managed to lunge forwards and seize his hands at the last second before he could burn them but he didn't even really seem to notice, too excited at being the centre of attention.

"Blow out the candles, darling!" she said to him, pointing at the cake. He just beamed up at her, bouncing in his seat eagerly.

In the end his candles were blown out for him by his mothers, one each side of his seat. Finn didn't mind one bit though, especially when Peppermint Butler slid a sizeable wedge of cake onto the gilded plate in front of him.

Nobody was entirely sure when Finn's birthday was so they'd agreed to hold a celebration on the anniversary of his finding instead. When the business with the Lich had happened Joshua had mentioned that the demon he'd killed said the man who'd been travelling with Finn had been murdered by The General's mercenaries before they'd torched Jake's family home. It was third hand information from a man who'd turned out to be unhinged from grief but it was all they had to go on. Marcy had to assume that Finn's father was probably the man who was killed and his birth mother's whereabouts were unknown. She bared her teeth just the tiniest fraction at the thought that there could be some woman out there who could turn up at any moment and try to claim their son, but she kept the thought to herself. Today was the first anniversary of the night she'd found him in the woods and she didn't want to ruin the festivities by thinking about anything distressing. Finn didn't notice anyway, he was busily mashing cake into his face with his little fists.

"Presents!" he crowed gleefully when he saw the pile of gifts that waited for him after his cake.

Jake stretched his arms along the table and placed a drawing he and Phoebe had done together in front of Finn, of five variously shaded blobs with giant smiles and multi-coloured hearts all around them. Finn laughed and shot his brother a shy smile, wiggling embarrassedly for no real reason Marceline could discern at all. It was a cute picture though, Jake had covered Phoebe's likeness in blue glitter and gone a bit crazy drawing her flames; they took up about a third of the picture in huge blue and gold swirls. When they'd asked him about the colourful heart blobs everywhere Jake had shyly said that those were his babies and he'd very nearly melted both his mothers' hearts with cuteness. She might even get that one framed, she thought with a fond smile.

There were general gifts from nobility and visiting royalty, the kind of thing that often got bought for a child the giver didn't know very well. Finn opened yet another packet of fancy clothes with a visible sulk, but he was well raised enough to still mutter a surly 'thank you' to the Duke of Nuts, who beamed anyway.

"I wish you hadn't invited him." Bonnie murmured to Marceline, frowning at the Duke.

"Nah he's chill, poor guy just suffers pudding deficiency."

"That's not a real medical condition and you know it!"

"You're just sour he's such a nice guy and everyone else in the world likes him." Marcy replied quietly with a theatrical eye roll.

Billy stepped up next with Eagle and Olgar in tow.

"We err, got something as a group. Emerald sends her regards but she couldn't make it today. So this is for you, Finn, from the Honour Guard."

Finn ripped the shiny paper off the large squishy package delightedly and his squeal of happiness probably woke half the bats in the kingdom. It certainly made Marceline wince and cover her sensitive ears.

"SWORD!" Finn screamed joyfully, grabbing the foam toy sword from the top of the box and waving it above his head wrong end first. There was a foam shield and a little foam replica red axe that looked suspiciously like it could easily be converted into a bass guitar if the birthday boy's mother felt inclined to tie on the strings that came with it. There were also a few different dress-up outfits; tunics embroidered to look like plate armour or chain mail, a dragon costume and a couple of princess dresses. Finn immediately pulled out the foam crown that came with one particularly elaborate dress and rammed it on his head, beaming cheekily at his Mama.

"Imma princess." he told her happily, waving his sword again.

"Baby you can be anything you want to be." Bonnie replied with a smile, crouching by his chair and kissing his cake stained cheek.

Jake's paw was halfway across the table before Finn noticed he'd stolen one of the foam shields and whacked him gently with his matching foam sword. Jake giggled and stretched himself to look like a dragon, growling and coiling around Phoebe who started laughing uncontrollably.

"Gimme princess!" Finn yelled, wiggling around wildly to try to free himself from his baby chair. Bonnie lifted him down and he immediately toddled off to play with his siblings, swapping his crown for a more heroic looking foam helmet as he went.

"I'd say that's a hit, then!" Olgar chortled, smiling at the children. "Our lot had a set almost identical when they were kids, Caleb probably still has the foam armour that came with it somewhere."

The Honour Guard stepped back to their seats, and with the presents concluded the polite conversations between adults began as the various royal children who'd been invited for the day wiggled free of their parents and tore around the room squealing, high on birthday cake and party atmosphere.

"Ok, so are we letting them play with toy weaponry?" Marceline asked Bonnie in a tone full over overprotective parental worry.

"Well do you want to go tell them they're not allowed?" she replied gently. "Look how happy they are, love. And you know there's no guarantee that they'll turn into axe wielding maniacs just because they play with toy weapons. They might take after me instead."

All things considered it was a pretty spectacular birthday, even if everyone who gave Finn a hug or kiss ended up with bits of cake stuck to them and nobody got out of being 'killed' with the foam sword at least once.

...

"How have you been feeling this week, your Majesty? Have you had any particular anxieties?"

Bonnibel thought for a moment before she replied.

"I suppose it's nothing out of the ordinary. I was stressed about some work in the lab and finding a tutor for the children, I'd love to teach them everything I can myself but I just don't have the time even with Marcy helping with royal responsibilities. I did feel quite anxious yesterday but I used the breathing techniques you showed me and I got through it. I don't even know why, I just didn't want to be surrounded by a crowd and I had to do some public speaking. But I feel like I've made progress, I had a mini freak out and covered it, I don't think anyone even noticed."

Stefan smiled encouragingly and gently probed her mind for truthfulness. She was downplaying how anxious she'd felt the day previously and he could feel the guilt she was trying to hide from him under her bright happy thoughts. He shook his head sadly; she'd done her research well but there was no fooling an eleven hundred year old telepath. Still she was being truthful about the breathing techniques, she really had managed to successfully control her anxiety attack. That was good news.

He felt the shift in her thoughts a second before she spoke next.

"Do you ever feel like we talk too much about me in these sessions? I consider you a friend, Stefan. I'd like to know more about you."

His silent heart seized in terror. Stefan hadn't talked about himself or his feelings for six hundred years.

"I'm nothing important." he replied, tucking a strand of shoulder length dark blonde hair behind one ear in an unconscious motion of embarrassment. "Just another vampire, loyal to my queens."

But she was frowning thoughtfully. That was bad, Stefan decided. Dangerous.

"Suppose you told me more about how you were Turned, though?" Bonnie pressed, leaning forward and gazing earnestly at him. He wriggled uncomfortably.

"Suppose. But it's not a very interesting story."

"You told me you were a doctor in the time before the Mushroom Wars. That's pretty interesting." she replied with a shrug. And he touched her mind again, trying to decide if he could comply with her request. There was no malice there, just a genuine curiosity and a wish to get to know him a little better. Stefan sighed internally and prepared himself for reliving the least favourite parts of him life.

"Back when I was a human there was a lot of prejudice for homosexuals. People who are only romantically interested in the same sex, like you and like me." he added when he felt her confusion, wondering why the Candy queen had never heard the term before. "We were treated a lot like how you still worry people will treat vampires. We were murdered and beaten, driven out of our homes, we hid from our families and friends."

"But why? We're no different to anyone else. It makes no sense." Bonnie murmured, her thoughts swirling with confusion.

"I agree, it makes no sense at all. But that's how it was, humans chose to hate each other for no real reason." Stefan replied carefully.

"So are all vampires, um, homosexuals?"

He laughed at that, a genuine belly laugh that would have left him struggling for breath if he'd needed it.

"Not more than anyone else! Marceline just accidentally surrounded herself with them, I'm sure she knows about me but we've never sat down and had a conversation about it. Vampires as a rule don't care what gender we sleep with; there's a reason we have a reputation for lacking morals. But there were some who held onto their prejudice after they were Turned, it certainly didn't make life any easier."

"And Marcy? She's a homosexual, too?"

"Not exactly. She's more like the typical vampire, just very sexual in general. She doesn't see the person's gender identity as having any bearing on who she's attracted to, she considers each person individually."

The queen nodded thoughtfully. When she didn't say anything for a couple of minutes Stefan returned to his story.

"At the time I was only just an adult and I'd travelled to a city far to the south of my home to study medicine of the mind. I missed my brothers and my parents but most of all I missed Nils, the young man my father had hired from the next farm over to help with that year's harvest. When his lips touched my bare skin that that day by the river it was the most beautiful and terrifying thing that had ever happened to me. I loved Nils intensely, desperately, for the whole season. Then I was sent to a city called Gothenburg, to the new hospital to apprentice as a doctor. Nils married my sister, I never saw him again."

Stefan easily pushed down the ancient hurt that wanted to rise through him when he thoughts about Nils. Would the slender, clever man with his soft hands and gentle voice have ever been able to begin to understand who Stefan had become? He was happy Nils had been happy, that was all he'd ever wanted for him.

"It must have hurt you terribly." Bonnie said quietly, leaning forward and taking his hand.

"It hurt like nothing I'd ever known. By the end of my fourth winter in the south I was so depressed. I'd lost all interest in my studies, I lost all my friends and most of the small amount of money my father had sent with me. I couldn't face going home and watching Nils and Maria being happy together, she was already pregnant with my lover's child. I was disgusting, a freak. I decided to drown myself. I went down to the river with the intention of killing myself and that's where I met the Vampire King. He was different in those days, he passed for human to those who didn't know him. Later when he met Marceline after the war he assumed his preferred lion form but then he was a tall man with curled black hair. He saw himself as a philanthropist, rescuing the lost and needy from their misery. He tried to convince me to join him and when I refused he Turned me against my will, never once questioning that it was the right thing to do. I didn't know what to do afterwards, I followed him anyway. He was old, powerful, I tried to make the best of my situation and learn all I could. We travelled together, the King wasn't bound by countries or borders. He took me to the Americas, the place that is now Ooo. He was much older than me, maybe four or five hundred years, and he'd been born a nobleman in the island kingdom across the sea from my home. He had a large lineage at one point but not many of us remain now."

"Lineage?" she asked, confused.

"Lineage is the way we refer to the vampires Turned by another. The Vampire King was my Sire, I was his lineage. The link between Sire and their lineage is strong and only the very strongest can ever overcome it. Despite the way he Turned me I never found the strength to break from him, I followed him until the day he died."

Stefan didn't have Marceline's gift of making his words come to life behind her eyelids but Bonnie shivered nevertheless, head full of cold pale hands and bite wounds, water filling burning lungs. It still made no sense to her though. Stefan recoiled the moment he felt the next question solidify in her brain but he couldn't stop her from asking it. Besides, she deserved to know.

"What happened to the old King? How did he die?"

"It was just after the Mushroom War." Stefan replied carefully after a long moment of thought, trying to find a way of wording things as neutrally as possible. "He came across a... creature of great strength, and decided, foolishly, to quarrel with her. In the moment that he fed on her she killed him, and seeing that she was bitten she ran away while his ashes were still settling on the breeze. I was hidden close by, ordered not to interfere by my King. I heard all the lies he told her about being the last of his species and I resolved to make sure sure she knew that was a lie as soon as I could. I never saw her actually Turn but obviously it happened."

"She? Who?"

Stefan cringed internally. He'd been sure she'd have been able to work it out. And maybe he was right because he heard her mind whisper the name before he said it.

"Marceline."

It caused a shock wave to run through the queen's mind despite her expectation but she recovered quickly, that now familiar lightning-quick logic that he'd come to associate with her thoughts reasserting itself after a moment's chaos.

"She never talks about it, I assumed it must have been non consensual." Bonnie murmured, twisting her wedding band in an unconscious gesture of anxiety.

"She was scared and alone, she didn't know what he was doing. The King saw her as barely more than an animal anyway, a beast her could control and use for his own purposes. Far too many people in her life have tried to use her like that. It was self-defence, she didn't know he'd already infected her with his venom when she staked him. And then she ran, and I hesitated. Follow, and avenge my Sire? Find her, educate her about what she had become? Or be glad I was free from him and go my own way?"

"You followed her." Bonnie said confidently.

Stefan nodded, a little amused that she claimed not to know him so well but could predict his movements accurately.

"Yes, I followed her. But she knew someone was on her trail and she hid. It took me the better part of a hundred years to come face to face with her again. And when I did she was a sorry sight. She'd crossed the sea and gone in search of the humans that she saved, instead she found the vampire infested southern wastes. Half feral, living alone in a cave, she'd feed on anything and everything she could get her fangs into. I'd have ended up as her next victim if I'd been even a little weaker. You know how strong she is."

And oh was it really necessary for her thoughts to immediately turn to the kind of bedroom activities Stefan really didn't want to know about? But yes, he had to concede, the Candy queen was well aware of her wife's superhuman strength. And Marceline had never been shy of showing off, even if her Majesty hadn't have been thinking of their nightly activities she'd have had plenty of opportunity to see her wife in action.

"Anyway," Stefan continued, pulling out of her thoughts with a slight mental shake, "I calmed her, fed her, taught her what she was and that despite the lies of our Sire she was not alone, not the only vampire left. And that was when my Talent manifested, about the time I was staring her in the eyes trying to figure out if I wanted to help her or kill her and avenge my King. Suddenly I could hear her thoughts, I could hear how lonely and terrified she was, how disgusted by what she'd been made into. It echoed my own feelings, and I knew that here was someone of unbelievable strength who could understand what I'd been though. So I followed her instead, all the way across the wastes searching for the remaining humans, to the Citadel and eventually into the throne room. I held the false King down while she executed him and took the crown that was rightfully hers. And I have followed her ever since."

He ended his story with an unconscious bow, to the hopes he'd had all those centuries ago, to what they'd all become since. Part of him wanted to continue, to tell her about Marco and the war, but he stopped himself. He didn't think he had the strength to relive that too. Bonnie blinked at the abrupt end to his story, and when she stood and came to him he accepted her hug without a second thought.

...

There was an angry yell and the noise of a slamming door from upstairs and Marceline grimaced, knowing almost telepathically that Jake had just done something awful to yet another tutor. He just didn't like anyone else trying to teach him stuff, their normally kind and laid back boy became sulky and angry around tutors. Stefan had asked him some gentle probing questions about it and come to the conclusion it was some sort of delayed panic response about what had happened to his birth parents, he had somehow made a link between new adults entering his life and losing the people he cared about. She sighed and put down the flask of gloopy science liquid Bonnie had asked her to mind, floating towards the door of the lab. She'd really hoped that this tutor, being an old friend, would be different.

"I'll go, love. I'm no good at this science junk anyway."

Her wife shot her a distracted smile and waved her away, face only momentarily turned towards the noise before it was glued back to her microscope. Marceline only got as far as the main hallway before her old musician friend Eberhardt came hurrying towards her, grasping one hand and muttering angrily to himself. On second thoughts perhaps that had been the sound of a piano lid being slammed shut onto fingers, not a door. She winced in sympathy at how much that must have hurt.

"Marceline do not even try to talk me into tutoring that boy again! No, not even for the sake of our friendship or for Joshua's memory! He is wild and out of control, I won't do it!" Eberhardt said angrily the moment he saw her, his floppy red bow tie quavering angrily.

"Hey, relax, Eb. I'm not going to ask you if you don't wanna do it. I'm sorry Jake hurt your hand. He's just a puppy and you know he's been through some stuff." she replied as soothingly as possible.

Eberhardt just flounced past her and wrenched the main doors open, she shrank back from the sunshine that spilled into the hall as he departed.

"We're still on for jamming next week though, right?" she yelled at his retreating back.

"Yes, so long as you leave your hooligan son at home!" he shouted, waving distractedly over his shoulder. She watched him out of sight and then sighed heavily.

A paw slithered into her hand and she looked down, unsurprised to see Jake doing his very best puppy dog eyes at her. He must have been watching the whole thing from the stairs.

"Sorry Mom." he muttered, looking down at his feet after a second. She crouched down to his level and gently tilted his head up so she could look him in the eyes.

"You know it's not right to slam someone's hand in the piano, yeah?" she asked, trying hard to look disapproving and not to let the humour show on her face. It was maybe a tiny bit funny, but Eberhardt was a friend from years ago and she didn't want him to be mad at her or at Jake.

"Yes." Jake whispered, eyes beginning to brim with tears. "But he was mean 'n he said I was too wiggly. He was _mean_ , Mom. 'N I dint wanna tutor, why can't you show me to play?"

She scooped him into a hug and turned back towards to the stairs with him, wondering if maybe they were starting him on music lessons a bit too early. But Bonnie insisted, Jake was the crown prince and he needed to have a classical education and that involved playing music along with a ton of other bizarre talents. Marcy hadn't wanted to argue, not when Bonnie was finally recovering so well. And Jake was maturing a lot faster than their other two; he didn't need naps through the day anymore, he spoke in almost complete sentences and developmentally he didn't seem much behind where she'd been herself when her own mother had started teaching her to play the piano.

Marceline had maintained that she didn't have enough time to tutor him properly but honestly Bonnie had been doing science for long enough without her help that she probably could make time, if it was for Jake. Besides her official Vampire Queen business usually amounted to hanging out with the girls and Stefan and occasionally jamming with Keila if the reclusive musician was anywhere near the palace. She nodded to herself, she had time to show him the basics.

They entered the music room together and she took in the devastation of spilled and ripped pages of sheet music and tipped piano stools. The large display case was open and she frowned in genuine disapproval then. Joshua's viola was hanging by only one hook, someone had tried to grab it from its case.

"Jacob Dog Abadeer." she scolded, turning to him and pointing at the viola. "Do you know what that is? That's your Daddy's viola, the one that I'm going to show you how to play when you're bigger. It's not a toy and it's in a case for a reason, ok? So that it doesn't get damaged, because you don't have many things from your Dad and we want you to be able to enjoy the viola when you're big. So please don't open that case again, alright?"

This time the tears really did spill down his face and he began howling sadly, twisting away and trying to break free of her hug. Marceline clung on as gently as possible, until Jake stilled and wrapped his arms around her neck, wiping his nose on her hair where he thought she couldn't see.

"I'm sorry, Mom!" he gulped after a while. "I just wanna pretty play on it! Like Daddy did."

"I know, Jakey. But you need to learn the basics of music before you can try something so advanced, and the piano is easiest to do that on, ok? Look."

She carefully rehung the viola and closed the case then swept them both over to the piano, flipping the stool back upright with her foot and settling into a comfortable hover just above it. Jake slid down to sit in her lap, his eyes just above the keys.

"See, this is a scale." Marceline said, playing a basic C scale single handed while stroking his ears with the other. Jake nodded, he knew what a scale was.

"But see, the scale is what all the music is made out of. If you just use the notes from the scale you can make something like this-" she began to play the melody to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jake nodded again, smiling at the tune he recognised, "or this-" she let the other hand drift in lower down the keys, beginning to mess around with variations and adding trills and counterpoints, skimming up and down the octaves and inverting the melody in places, following the variations laid out by Mozart so many centuries before "-or eventually even this."

Marceline finished by letting both hands have free reign, dancing over the keys in a complex pattern that she placed after a moment as Schubert's Piano Sonata in C Major. It had been years since she'd really played a piano, not since she'd taught Eberhardt himself as a young boy. And if her near perfect memory served like it always did he'd been rather a wiggly student too.

She smiled, it was nice to rediscover different instruments. And her hands hadn't forgotten at least, they followed every note just as perfectly as always without any conscious effort on her part. Marceline had mastered the piano centuries ago, it wasn't even a slight challenge anymore.

She played for a couple of minutes more before she finished with a flourish, grinning down at Jake who stared back with amazed eyes.

"Show me how?" he breathed in awe.

"Mhm, put your paws over my hands and just try to follow my movements, ok? Don't press any of the keys yet and just feel how you'd have to move your paws to follow the music."

He stretched his paws up bigger to match the size of her ashen hands and fitted them gently where she indicated, careful not to touch her fingers too hard and cause her to press a key accidentally. They worked slowly through a couple of different scales and some slower melodies before Jake felt confident enough to try a few on his own. They were sloppy and hesitant but Marceline beamed proudly nevertheless; he definitely had some natural talent.

That's where Bonnie found them hours later, still sitting at the piano discussing Bach and Schubert in awed voices with no idea how long they'd been playing. She paused in the doorway to make sure she had the memory of them sitting together at the piano perfectly fixed into her mind before gently reminding them it was dinnertime.


	10. Chapter 10

**Time is slipping by at a faster rate now, since this fic would be a thousand chapters long if I wrote every single cute family scene in my head. So please bear with me until the end here, because time is going to accelerate from here on out.**

 **Thank you to my reviewers/favourite/followers, your support means a lot! I love you guys.**

 **Content Warning: cuteness. That is all.**

* * *

Time was doing that thing again where it hurtled past and didn't even have the courtesy to stop and let Marceline know about it first. It tended to do that when she was happy which was probably why she hadn't been accustomed to it happening all that often in her life until then and she really hadn't been prepared for it. She woke up early one grey autumn morning and realised it was very nearly her fourth wedding anniversary and that she still had no idea where the last few years had gone; they'd sped past her in an idyllic blur of birthdays and picnics and occasional small rows about nothing much at all, night-time flying with Bonnie and piano lessons with the kids. It was the longest they'd ever gone without one of them starting a massive fight about something and breaking up for a couple of weeks before getting back together explosively and starting their destructive cycle all over again. Marcy was distantly proud of herself for maintaining her adult responsibility for four whole years. She shifted onto her back, still half asleep, and rested a hand lovingly on her wife's hip, letting the warmth of Bonnie's wonderfully soft pink skin soak into her own cool flesh. It was still far too early to be up and for a while she just drowsed, sliding in and out of sleep and letting her mind wander where it would.

Marceline came awake a little more with a slight frown when she remembered it was a Monday morning and that meant it was the first day of the new school term. She'd finally talked Bonnie into letting the kids join the local school in town instead of having a string of disappointing tutors in the palace. But now that the day had actually come for them to begin classes with the Kingdom's other children Marcy wasn't entirely sure she was really ready to let them go and have adventures without her all day. Because when they were with Tree Trunks that was different, they were always somewhere around the palace or the grounds or at least someplace where Marcy knew exactly where they were and who they were with. But school... she had no real experience of school, the world had ended before she made it to her first day of classes. What if the other kids were mean? What if one of her three needed her urgently and she wasn't there for them? Those worries were probably the reason why she was awake at- she glanced at Bonnie's whimsical cat clock above the bed and groaned quietly- not even six in the morning.

Or, maybe not. Marcy frowned groggily at the weird blue glow flickering on the ceiling before her sleep fogged brain worked out what she was looking at and she glanced down past her pillow to the floor. A tiny flaming blue head poked up over the edge of the bed and grinned back at her. Marceline immediately scooted across the mattress, bumping hips with Bonnie so there was room for Phoebe to clamber up beside her for a morning snuggle. The little blue princess pulled herself up onto the bed and immediately settled herself on Marceline's knees, beaming up at her with huge eyes brimming with excitement.

"…Sho...?" her wife murmured sleepily from where she was sprawled on her front, opening one bleary eye at the light and movement.

"Adorable bedroom invaders." Marcy answered fondly, peering over the edge of the mattress again and reaching down to help Finn who was still a bit shorter than his big sister. "Go back to sleep babe, I've got this."

"Mm. Little cuties." Bonnie agreed sleepily before her eyelids slid closed again.

"Mom, Mama, wake up, cause I'm gonna go to schoooooooooool today!" Phoebe sang in a loud and completely tuneless voice, bouncing excitedly against her Mom's knees and causing Bonnie to hide her head under the pillows with a quiet groan.

"Me too! Wake up! Schoooooooool!" Finn joined in noisily. He linked arms with his sister and they bounced in unison for a split second before Marceline grabbed them both gently and drifted up into the air with them.

"Have you two got any idea what time it is?" she asked wearily, smiling down at them both despite herself.

"Story Time?" Finn asked innocently.

"No, 'far too early to be awake' time. And possibly 'your Mama is grumpy if she doesn't get enough sleep and takes it out on your poor equally tired Mom' time, too." Marceline replied with a sidelong glance to the quietly fuming shape under the heap of pillows next to her.

"But I'm not sleepy, Mom. I'm too excited to be sleepy." Finn whined, wriggling around until he was mostly sitting on her stomach and prodding curiously at her exposed grey ribcage where her pyjama top had slid up a little. "I'm hungry. Maybe it's breakfast time!" he added brightly.

"Yes, it is definitely breakfast time." Bonnie's muffled voice answered him from under her mound of pillows and blankets. "It's about time your Mom took you downstairs and fed you and left me to sleep for a bit longer before I have to get up, please."

They both turned pleading eyes on Marceline and she considered that maybe she'd been a little hasty telling Tree Trunks they could handle the day alone. But it was still an hour or so before the little elephant nanny would have arrived at the palace anyway and she supposed she had signed up for the unpleasantly early mornings as well as all the other less fun bits when she'd signed the adoption paperwork. And they were so adorable and she could always nap later anyway, it wasn't like she had much planned for the day-

"Right, what do you two little monsters want for breakfast?" she asked, putting them down gently on the floor and drifting across the room to the wardrobe.

"I want oatmeal!" Finn yelled at exactly the same time Phoebe shouted "I want hardwood!"

Marcy nodded to show she'd heard them and grabbed a night robe to throw over her pyjamas before allowing herself to be half dragged from her bedroom and down to the kitchens with one excitable child dangling from each hand.

"Hey, where's your brother?" she asked after a few minutes, looking around to see if Jake was anywhere nearby. Phoebe rolled her eyes theatrically.

"He's asleep still, he said he didn't want early breakfast." she sighed.

"Yeah, he's so boring. Go away Finn, I'm sleeping Finn, stop prodding my ears Finn. Boooooring." Finn chimed in, doing his best impression of Jake's grumpy morning voice.

"Guys, don't annoy Jake. It really is too early to be up yet, he's right. And nobody likes having their ears prodded first thing in the morning." Marceline replied around a badly concealed yawn.

They entered the dark kitchen together and when she flipped on the lights there was an abrupt scream of discordant noise and all three of them jumped into the air, Marceline's face transforming into the she-wolf in fright as she instinctively pushed Finn and Phoebe behind her, ready to spring forwards and _destroy_ whoever was threatening her children-

"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR WAKING ME UP, YOU PAIR OF UGLY BUTTFACES! Oh hey, sorry Mom."

Jake had gotten hold of a trumpet from the music room and apparently laid a noisy ambush to scare his siblings. Marcy could have slapped herself for being so inattentive; how many centuries had it been since someone had managed to creep up on her? And Jake apparently managed it by hiding under a table and waiting until she was sleepy.

"Yeah? Well you're a hairy buttface!" Phoebe shrieked breathlessly, lunging forward and grabbing the trumpet from Jake's paws with Finn close on her heels. The three of them ran around yelling at each other and blowing jarringly into the stolen trumpet while their mother tried to make the claws retract back into her finger tips and calm the huge adrenaline spike still pulsing automatically around her system. Marceline calmed her cold heart back to stillness. Nobody was attacking them, Jake had just played a bad prank. She took a deep, steadying breath and struggled to regain her calm before attempting to move or speak again.

"Sit down, all three of you, or nobody gets breakfast and you'll spend all day being grounded in your rooms instead of going anywhere." Marceline commanded in an icy tone. They all stopped chasing each other and trooped over to the little table at the back of the room, small faces showing various shades of sulky and sheepish.

She was stirring the oats into the rapidly warming milk and casting dark glances at the children a couple of minutes later when Peppermint Butler stuck his head around the door, closely followed by Zoe and Matilda.

"Is there a problem, your Majesty?" the little butler asked worriedly. "I heard a… cacophony."

"No, just three very silly children." she sighed in reply, indicating the sulking bunch sitting at the breakfast table in the corner. Finn waved cheekily and Matilda winked at him, earning herself a frown from her queen.

"We've not been to bed yet, you want us to help babysit?" Zoe asked, coming forward and deftly rescuing the oatmeal from Marceline's inattentive care, before she could accidentally tip cayenne pepper instead of cinnamon into the mixture.

"I wanna say 'I've got this' but... yeah, I guess I could use a hand."

Zoe gently pushed her away from the stove and took over cooking the oatmeal while Matilda drifted over to the little table to keep the kids entertained until their breakfasts were ready. Peppermint Butler went about making three mugs of red hibiscus tea with a crooked smile, humming happily to himself about something and cheerfully ignoring Marceline's sleepy glares as she floated past him to the pantry to grab a plateful of hardwood splinters for Phoebe.

"Cherry wood and oak for you today, Firefly. Gotta keep you well fuelled for all that learning." Marceline said, sliding the plate across the table to Phoebe. The little flame girl made a face at the slivers of oak but picked one up and began munching on it dutifully, casting disgusted glances at the steaming oatmeal Jake and Finn were digging into.

When Finn noticed the dirty look she was giving him he took a huge bite of his breakfast and stuck his food covered tongue out at Phoebe, making her squeal in outrage.

"Ew! Mooooom, Finn's making me look at the gross water-food again!" she wailed with her flames shivering indignantly. Jake sniggered around his own mouthful of oatmeal and Finn grinned at his brother, their enmity forgotten as they joined forces to annoy their sister.

"Grod, Finn, just eat your breakfast instead of playing with it please. And to think I was almost worried I might miss you three troublemakers today." Marceline groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"I'll miss you, Mom. And Mama too." Jake piped up.

"Suck up." Finn mumbled mutinously around his breakfast. "Imma big boy, I don't miss anyone."

"That is a very foolish thing to say, your little Majesty." Peppermint Butler admonished as he slid a hot mug of fresh red tea to Marceline. She smiled thanks to him as he continued to address a sulky Finn. "Do you want to hurt your mother's feelings? She loves you very much and I think you'll find that no matter how big you get, you'll still miss your parents when you have to be away from home. And it's perfectly alright to miss the people you love."

Finn just glowered down into his half empty bowl petulantly.

"You know, I still miss my Mom sometimes." Matilda told him gently. He looked up at that, blue eyes going wide with surprise.

"You had a Mom once, Aunt Tilda?"

"Sure, I had a Mom and two baby sisters and a tiny baby brother too. And I had a horrible Dad. He was really mean and my Mom kept me safe when he was angry with me. She was such a nice lady, so strong and kind. And I still miss her even though I'm really old."

"My Dad was mean to me, too." Phoebe nodded sagely. So far all she knew was that her birth father hadn't treated her nicely and that she'd been adopted so she could live with a happy family instead, Bonnie had worried about how much to tell her when she was still so small. Phoebe spoke in such a wise, world weary voice, like she had any idea of what a mean Dad was like. The adults shared amused glances over her oblivious little head. Zoe reached down and ruffled her flames fondly, making Phoebe giggle and wiggle around in her seat.

"An then, then Mom came and took me away and now I live here in the pretty palace instead an I got two stinky boy brothers who eat icky wet food instead of yummy wood an coal!" the little flame girl added with a nod, like she'd solved some knotty problem. She looked thoughtful for a minute, the adults held their collective breaths.

"Paper is super tasty, too." Phoebe finished with a bright smile. "Mom, can I have some paper?"

Zoe was the first to give in to sniggering, closely followed by Matilda and then Marceline. Peppermint Butler favoured the little princess with a deep smile.

"Sure, darling. But only one page, you've already had your wood."

Phoebe excused herself and wandered over to the pantry to grab a sheet of baking paper while Matilda elbowed Marcy in the ribs and whispered "morning wood" in her ear, causing them all to fall about laughing again while the boys stared at them in confusion.

...

In the end Marceline's fears about their first day of school where entirely unfounded. When she and a still quite sleepy Bonnie kissed the kids goodbye outside of the school gates Jake was hopping impatiently from foot to foot, desperate to go see what all the screams of delight and loud noises of playful children were all about. Phoebe was checking her reading books over and over, making absolutely sure she hadn't left a single one of her precious stories at home. Only Finn seemed at all nervous, hanging onto his Mama's hand like it was a lifeline and nibbling his fingernails anxiously.

"What if the other kids are mean to me?" he whispered to her when Bonnie bent to give him his kiss.

"Well you're a brave boy, you tell those mean kids that you're too nice to be friends with them." she replied, smoothing down his hair and giving him her brightest smile.

Finn smiled back for a second then looked glum again.

"But I'm not a candy." he pressed worriedly. "What if the teacher says I gotta go home cause I'm not a candy like everyone else?"

Bonnie hugged him tightly and shot an amused glance up to where Marceline was wiping a stray fleck of toothpaste from Jake's cheek underneath her parasol.

"Finn, sweetie, look at me. You're our son and you're a Candy Prince, ok? That means it doesn't matter if you're physically made out of candy or not, you're an important part of this Kingdom and you have every right to be at school like everyone else. And you're also a human and a Vampire Prince and a really lovely guy. The teachers are already expecting you and I think the kids are gonna think that you're pretty cool." Bonnie told him gently.

"You really think so?"

"Totally. And if you're still not sure then you can show them your pendant, that's the coolest thing of all."

Finn's little hands flew to his chest, where the little blue stone he'd worn since he was a baby hung under his fancy pink tunic.

"Really, Mama? But nobody else is allowed to wear it, right?"

"That's right, baby. Nobody but you gets to wear your stone, it's just for you to keep safe because you're a prince. But it's pretty cool and you can use it in Show and Tell if you want to. So long as you're nice to people they'll be nice to you back. Just be yourself."

He nodded, still looking a little uncertain, but Jake had finally broken free form his Mom's protective hug and run forward into the schoolyard, he was yelling to Finn over his shoulder with Phoebe following at a more sedate pace.

"Bye guys, have fun!" Bonnie called after them as Finn reluctantly followed his siblings through the gates.

"And be good, be polite to the teachers!" Marceline added a little worriedly. "Did you check his bag for toy swords?" she added quietly to Bonnie.

"Yeah, no toy swords in sight. I mean, he's got his toy axe but that isn't a sword."

"Bonnie! You can't send him to school with a toy weapon!" Marceline yelped in horror. Her wife just laughed at her, which didn't make her feel any calmer.

"I didn't! I sent him to school with a toy bass guitar! I fitted the strings on while you guys were having breakfast and put it in his bag so he'd have something familiar if he got a little homesick. Oh relax, love. He'll be the coolest kid in class with that. You might not have released any new albums recently but you're still pretty well known, every kid in the building will want to play with it. Probably half of the teachers, too."

Marceline sulked all the way back to the palace.

...

"Tell me a bedtime story, Daddy?"

"Of course, darling. What kind of story?"

She thought for a minute.

"A princess story!"

"Ok! I'm really good at princess stories. Once upon a time there was a little ice princess called Victoria-"

"NO! A different princess story! That one's boring and I heard it already!"

He gazed at her in confusion. When did she get so big? When did she stop wanting to hear stories about herself? He racked his brains for a minute trying to find inspiration. He didn't even know any other princesses her age, except perhaps-

"Ok, how about this? Once upon a time there were two little princesses called Fionna the Human and Cake the Cat. They lived in a beautiful candy palace-"

"Cate."

"What?"

"Cate the Cat. Cake is a stupid name for a Cat, cake is a type of food. People don't get named after food, Daddy."

"Well, Bubblegum is a type of food but I know someone called that."

She just stared at him coldly. Nobody had a colder stare than Victoria when she didn't get her way. He stared back for a moment but it was inevitable that he'd eventually give in and do whatever it was she wanted.

"Ok! The princess was called Cate the Cat! Princess Fionna and Princess Cate!"

"Were they beautiful princesses?"

"Yes darling, they were. Fionna had lovely shiny blonde hair that she kept really short specially so she could look just like her Dad and Cate was a very talented musician, she was the star of her school orchestra. And they lived-"

"They had a Dad like me?"

"They actually had two Dads. And they were both kings! There was their Dad Marshall Lee the Vampire King, he was brave and funny and cool. And his husband was their Daddy, King Gumball the Candy King and he was the most handsome man in the whole world. And they all lived together in a beautiful palace made entirely out of candy."

Victoria stared harder, with that look she gave him when she didn't really believe what he was telling her.

"So they had two whole Daddies? No fair! Why can't I have two Daddies?"

Oh, right. Yes. Well, that was a question right there, wasn't it? He shifted uncomfortably.

"Well... because I never met a man I wanted to marry."

"But I want two Daddies like the pretty princesses in the story!"

"I'm sorry darling, you'll just have to make do with me. But I'm cool enough for two, aren't I?"

"...yeah, sure."

"Ooh you're a sassy one, little miss! Do you wanna hear this story or not?"

She nodded hard and looked up at him with big hopeful eyes. He sighed and continued his story.

"Ok. So. Princess Fionna and Princess Cate had a brother, too. He was called Prince... Phillip. And he was a fire elemental, made all out of super-hot flames. So he had to wear a special magic shields to keep his fire from burning anyone."

"Daddy, why were they all different species if they were brothers and sisters?"

"Because their fathers adopted them. You know what 'adoption' means, darling?"

She shook her head no.

"Well, it's where a Mommy or a Daddy decides they want to have a baby but they don't grow one in a Mommy's tummy like the more usual way of making a baby. They find a sad lonely baby who doesn't have a family and they sign some special legal papers saying they want to be the parent of that baby instead and then the baby is happy because they have parents who love them. So King Gumball and King Marshall adopted the three babies, because they weren't ladies and they couldn't grow them in either of their tummies, and that's why they were different species."

"Oh."

She looked up thoughtfully at him.

"But, I'm not adopted, right?"

"No you're not, you're my magic baby. I wanted someone to love and I made you with my magic instead."

She nodded, satisfied, and he continued with the story.

"Princess Cate was a magical Cat, she could turn herself into any shape she wanted! And one day her Dad King Gumball said that they were going to have a royal ball for her birthday and Cate could help play the music. She was so excited! But... someone had stolen her birth mother's hammered dulcimer! So she and Princess Fionna and Prince Phillip set off on an adventure through distant lands to find her special instrument and bring the mean criminals to justice."

Victoria snuggled down under her blankets and hugged her cuddly penguin close. She loved her Dad's stories, but she was a big girl now and didn't always want them to be about how little Princess Victoria won the Ice Kingdom beauty pageant again. She wanted to hear about other princesses, and Fionna and Cate were the coolest princesses she'd ever heard of. They were brave and funny and clever, she wished really hard that they were real and would come and be friends with her. Maybe they would, Victoria decided. Maybe if she hoped hard enough they'd be real and come play with her. When their cool Dad Marshall Lee used his axe bass to play the best song ever and open a magical door for them into the thief's magic house she cheered loudly, and when handsome King Gumball presented them with medals for bravery and they all danced at the royal ball to hammered dulcimer music she grinned sleepily and slid further down into her bed.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, darling?"

"...Do you think maybe Princess Fionna and Princess Cate had a friend who was an Ice Prince?"

He considered that for a moment.

"Maybe they did, what do you think his name was?"

She yawned hugely before replying, eyes already beginning to slide closed against her will.

"Mm, I think he was called Timothy. Timothy is a good name for an Ice Prince."

"Timothy? Are you sure? Not Victor?"

"No, Victor is a really lame name. He was called Timothy and his Mom was the Ice Queen and she told him the best bedtime stories and she was awesome and funny and sang all the best songs for him and she was his very bestest friend."

"Alright then darling, he was called Timothy."

He kissed her cool cerulean forehead and hummed their special lullaby as he pulled the blanket a little higher around the shoulders, the one he'd sung to sleeping daughters for many more years than he now remembered.

 _Are you going to Scarborough Fair?_

 _Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme._

 _Remember me to one who lives there._

 _She once was a true love of mine._


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm having to post this from my work computer because my cat ate my WiFi router cable. She is an adorable little monster though, I can't be too upset with her. Sorry for the slight delay in posting this chapter, I've not been terribly focussed on writing recently. No idea why, I guess I just suck? Probably it's because I'm pretty busy with wedding planning and stuff though, and I'm trying to renovate our house, adopt a puppy, write my own original novels, reapply for university, poly date, sew and sell interesting handcrafts and hold down a demanding full time job too. I'm exhausted just writing that list. So, my apologies for not being as good at updating as I'd like to be in an ideal world.**

 **Quick reminder: I adore challenges and prompts. I've not written one in a while, so send me some challenges, please? Also, thank you to my beautiful reviewers, you guys rock. Love you!**

 **Content Warning: kids being in pain, sulky teenagers, implied lady-on-lady sexy times that might just be shading towards the kinky if you want to read it that way (and I know you totally do, you filthy dogs you).**

* * *

It started off as just a regular Saturday morning like any other. Jake remembered it especially vividly though in the years later, after Phoebe he was probably the one it had had the deepest impact on.

He was biologically eight years old but developmentally already stuck deeply in the first throes of puberty, hormones raging way out of his control and generally hating the world for no real reason he could think of. So when his Mama woke him up at nine thirty in the morning he was extremely grumpy and really didn't want to know what the special treat she had planned for the day was, he wanted to sleep until noon at least and then go hang out with his orchestra friends in town being a general nuisance. Going for a picnic with his family was the lamest thing ever and Jake really couldn't overstate how little he wanted anything to do with it.

"Come on Jakey, it'll be fun." Bonnie said with a smile, stroking his ears. He shoved his head pointedly under his pillow and ignored her.

"I packed your Mom's mandolin, don't you want to bring your viola and play with her?"

He ignored her harder. Why were mothers so uncool? He didn't want to play music with his super lame Mom, it was bad enough that half his school friends had her stupid music posters all over their bedrooms and kept asking her to autograph their lame stuff. He didn't want to have a picnic with his boring kid siblings and he didn't want his stupid Mama sitting on his bed at practically the very break of day, waking him up and asking her stupid questions. He decided he was a brick, he was just going to ignore her until she got the message and left him alone. He shifted his shape, turning into a yellow oblong with his face still under the pillows, trusting that his super clever mother could work out for herself what he was doing. Bricks didn't have to go on ridiculous picnics, bricks didn't have boring 'family time', bricks-

"Jacob Dog Abadeer you turn back from a brick and get your lazy butt out of bed this instant!"

He threw himself upright and rolled out onto the floor with an angry growl, glaring at her mutinously even as her sharp tone triggered his guilt reflex.

"I don't wanna go on a dumb picnic!"

"Well then I guess it sucks to be you today then, because you're going on one! It's your Mom's birthday and we are taking her for a picnic and you are coming with us or so help me Grod you're never playing in the school orchestra again, are we clear? You think we have all the time in the world to lie in bed, Jake? Between international and domestic politics as well as parenting you three and running an entire Kingdom I don't have as much spare time to spend with your Mom as I'd like and I am taking her for a romantic birthday picnic today and the whole family is coming too, that is not open for negotiation!"

Jake locked his glare onto Bonnie's and they stared hard at each other for a long minute. But Jake didn't have the staying power to win a staring contest with his mother, she had centuries of experience on him. He looked down in defeat after a tense minute, scuffing his feet angrily off the plush pink rug.

"Fine! But I'm not gonna pretend to be happy about it! Why does Mom even want a stupid picnic anyway? She's just gonna burn up in the sunshine." Jake muttered sulkily.

"Because we always have a picnic on her birthday and you know that very well, your Mom likes spending time with you guys when you're not in school. We both do, even when you're tired and grumpy. Go get a shower and be downstairs in an hour, please. And please just try to be a good boy, please Jake? For me?"

He looked up at her pleading tone and some of his teenaged awkwardness melted away. Jake was very close to his Mama and he hated knowing he'd upset her. He stepped across the rug to her and briefly hugged her.

"I'm sorry, Mama. I'm just so tired all the time." he mumbled, ashamed.

"I know, sweetie, it's tough for you too. Did you get your Mom a birthday card?"

She sighed at his sheepish head shake, Jake had been so forgetful since his hormones kicked in. She hadn't been prepared for the way he'd changed more or less overnight; suddenly he was shooting up and sleeping all day and moping around moodily. At least she'd had the presence of mind to remember he'd forget and plan accordingly.

"Lucky I found this in the market the other day, then."

She handed him a blank square card with a glittering bat on the front, making him snigger a little reluctantly. It was perfect, Jake thought. Mom would love it.

"Thanks, Mama." Jake said quietly and hugged her again before he sloped off to take a shower and try to wake up a bit.

She shook her head bewilderedly, when had their sweet and sensitive son turned into such a horrible hormone monster? But Jake was going to shower and Finn and Phoebe were already up and breakfasted, racing around outside excitedly with Cinnamon Bun, she could hear their muffled shrieks of delight floating in through the open window. That meant she had at least an hour to give her wife a more personal birthday present, something that involved much less clothing and a lot more quiet swearing and lip biting.

Grinning mischievously Bonnie made her way back down the corridor to their bedroom, letting herself in quietly and sneaking up to the bed where Marcy had floated back up into the air without the usual warm pink arms around her shoulders to keep her down. Bonnie bit back a laugh and tried to decide how to begin.

"You know I always know when you're thinking something naughty." Marceline said without opening her eyes. "Your heartbeat gets all erratic and heavy, it's a dead giveaway."

On reflection she should have known better than to try to sneak up on a vampire. Bonnie sighed and decided the best plan of attack was just to go straight on the offensive. She kneeled on the bed and leaned forward, kissing along her wife's hip and thigh and sliding aside the waistband of her shorts.

Marceline fell back onto the mattress in shock, eyes flying wide open.

"Woah, hello, good morning to you too! Um, have I done anything extra special to deserve an early morning tumble?"

Bonnie giggled and looked down at her, drinking in how gorgeous she looked all wide eyed and surprised, hair spread out across the pillows like a dark halo.

"It's your birthday again, you adorable idiot. How do you always manage to forget your own birthday?"

Marceline just stared back at her for a second, brow furrowed in confusion.

"It is? Oh, right. Yeah. It is! Happy birthday to me. Do I get a present this year?"

Bonnibel bent down until her face was very close to her wife's sensitive ear and spoke quietly, delighting in the way the other woman shivered as her warm breath ghosted across deathly cold sensitive skin. No matter how long they'd been together she never got tired of the effect she had on the pale vampire.

"That depends. If by 'present' you mean am I wearing brand new and very skimpy bright red lace underwear and am I intending to let you drink the colour out of it and quite possibly remove it with your teeth, then yes, you do get a present."

Her wife just pulled her down and kissed her thoroughly, grinning when Bonnie took hold of her wrists and pinned them above her head. She could have easily broken free if she wanted but they both knew she'd much rather stretch out and pretend to be powerless.

"Bad vampire, very bad. Did I say you could kiss me back?"

Marcy shook her head no, grinning happily. It was definitely her favourite way to start a birthday.

"Mm, that's what I thought. Now I'm going to have to punish you. Flip over."

Marceline stared up in feigned innocence.

"Why would you want me to flip over? I'm perfectly comfortable right here on my back."

"Flip over or you're gonna be in serious trouble, Abadeer." Bonnie growled in faked frustration.

"Pfft. Make me, princess."

"Careful what you wish for. You're in for it now."

Marceline had never once complained about getting the same thing every year, she'd probably have been disappointed if Bonnie did something different. They still made it downstairs before Jake but it was a close thing; luckily he was too tired and grumpy still to notice his Mama had changed into a different shirt. The buttons had mysteriously popped off the one she'd had on when she'd woke him.

...

"Do you wanna come play frisbee with us?"

Kid brothers were almost as annoying as family picnics. Jake hunched his shoulders and bent further over his comic, ignoring Finn with a dark scowl.

"Jake? Hey, come on, do you wanna play with us bro?"

Finn prodded him in the ear and darted away laughing when his brother swatted at him angrily.

"No, go away! I'm reading and frisbee is stupid. And don't prod my ears!" Jake replied sulkily. Finn grinned and held up the frisbee, just out of his elder brother's reach.

"You absolutely sure, Jake? Cause... this isn't actually my frisbee. Don't you recognise it?"

Then Finn took off at a sprint, cackling loudly as his brother bellowed for him to give him his stuff back. Jake flung down his comic with a growl and followed at a run, ignoring his Mom's call for them to play nice. Phoebe was in on it too, they were tossing _his_ frisbee back and forth between them, laughing hard and running away every time he got close, they must have pre-planned it specifically to annoy him. Jake _hated_ younger siblings right then, intensely.

"GIVE IT BACK YOU PAIR OF STUPID BUTT MUTANTS! FINN! PHOEBE! I'LL TELL MOM!"

"MOM ALREADY KNOWS AND SHE DOESN'T SEEM TOO UPSET ABOUT IT!" Finn yelled back, leaping into the air to catch Jake's frisbee and tossing it back to Phoebe over his brother's head. Jake swerved and leapt for it too, missing by a fraction of an inch and crashing down into the long grass with an angry grunt. They were out by the big wide river that wound through the grassland, on the other side of the Candy forest.

"FINE THEN I'LL TELL MAMA AND SHE'LL GROUND YOU FOR A HUNDRED MILLION YEARS!" Jake screamed angrily, rolling up from the ground and chasing Phoebe breathlessly. He'd almost got her, paw stretched magically four times its length, when she hurled the frisbee back through the air to Finn, making Jake swerve ninety degrees again.

He must have overbalanced across his awkward teenage limbs because suddenly instead of running he was tumbling forward, head stretched back over his neck to track the frisbee's progress, feet tangled under him as he slammed bodily into his little sister and then over and over across the ground. Her playful squeal of delight turned into a terrified scream as he knocked her flying, she was so much smaller than him now and his momentum carried them both forwards. Jake skidded to a halt halfway down the grassy bank that lead steeply into the river. Phoebe didn't.

Her agonised screaming was something Jake thought he'd never forget, he stared in horror as his little sister's head disappeared under the slow flowing brown water with a huge splash. She came up again a moment later but it was too steamy to see anything more than the dazzling orange glow that flickered and danced crazily as the water fought the fire. Phoebe's Flame Shield must have failed; he hadn't ever seen her turn bright orange before.

Finn had skidded to a stop at the edge of the bank, breathless and terrified. He stared down at his brother, frozen in horror, and his sister screaming and thrashing around in the lethal water.

"MOOOOOOM!" Finn shrieked at the top of his voice. But she must have already heard Phoebe's scream; a huge black shape trailing thick smoke hurtled past over his head and collided with the surface of the water, sending more enormous waves sloshing up the banks.

"Finn, fetch my parasol!" Marceline yelled as her transformed bat face broke the water's surface, a gasping and sobbing Phoebe wrapped tightly in her wings. She dragged the shrieking little girl out onto the shallow bank and grabbed handfuls of the dry grass and twigs that were lying around, tucking them tightly around her daughter's damp steaming body and offering a quick prayer of thanks to whichever deity was listening that it hadn't rained for a while and there was plenty of dry material around to try to kindle her daughter's fire with.

"Mom, you're burning up." Phoebe said weakly, reaching up to her blistering bat wing. She recoiled when her touch caused more blisters and smoke to erupt from Marceline's skin, wrapping her arms tightly around herself instead.

"Shh don't worry about me, it's gonna be ok, darling. Your Shield came off but you're gonna be fine. Here, try to burn this grass, we need to get you dried out."

Phoebe tried to concentrate past the awful pain all over her skin; it was difficult to force the flames out against the awful dampness destroying her fire. And she was so tired, suddenly she was exhausted and dizzy, struggling to keep her eyelids open or lift her weak limbs at all. She closed her eyes but her Mom shook her, talking in a garbled rush.

"No! Stay awake Firefly, you can't go to sleep! Come on baby, light the twigs!"

Phoebe just shook her head drowsily. She had no energy left to fight it, she was hurting so badly and exhausted and everything was whirling around her like she'd just stepped off a fairground ride. She could smell smoke; was that herself or her Mom burning under the bright sun? Suddenly the light was blocked out by something big and dark; Finn and her Mama had arrived with Mom's parasol.

Mama was kneeling breathlessly by her side and- ripping off a chunk or her own hair? Phoebe was so confused, she stared around at them all, not understanding what was happening.

"Sugar burns pretty well instantly, she needs fuel." Mama was saying hurriedly. Mom grabbed the handful of bright pink gum and held it up to Phoebe's face.

"You've gotta eat this quick, darling. Come on, open up."

Phoebe opened her mouth to tell them she wasn't going to eat a big chunk of her mother's gross hair but it was too late, Mom had already rammed it in past her teeth and Phoebe could either swallow or choke. She glared at them both, unreasonably angry that she'd been tricked. The world stopped spinning though and her eyelids stopped feeling like there were leaden weights attached to them. Suddenly the dry grass and twigs around her flared to life and more of the water was driven from her flaming skin, evaporating into a huge cloud of steam.

Finn jumped back with a yell; he was gripping his arm tightly and biting his lip to keep from crying. With a sudden rush of guilt Phoebe realised she'd burnt him. But he smiled bravely at her and knelt carefully next to Mom.

"Hey, it's ok, Firefly. It was an accident. Doesn't even hurt." he said to her gently. She sniffled and repressed the urge to reach out to him; Phoebe wanted a hug more than anything but she knew she'd burn anyone who tried to touch her without her Flame Shield.

"Wait here, I'll be back as quick as I can." Marceline said, transforming back to her usual pale faced self now that the parasol was protecting her. She streaked off into the sky, still trailing faint streaks of smoke.

"Where's Jake?" Phoebe asked cautiously, sitting up and looking around her. She spotted her big brother sitting off to one side, arms wrapped around himself and shaking with tears. "Jake?" she called to him softly.

"Don't talk to me, I don't deserve it." he howled pitifully, before he stretched his arms all around himself into a miserable little cocoon.

Phoebe just stared at him. It had been an accident, she wasn't angry with him. She didn't understand why he was acting like that.

"Will you be ok waiting here with Finn?" Bonnie asked reaching out but not quite touching the naked orange flames around her daughter's head. Phoebe nodded sadly and her mother got up and walked over to Jake, sitting next to him and talking to him in a quiet voice.

"I'm sorry." Finn murmured to Phoebe, huddling as close as he dared. "It was my fault, I should have given him his frisbee back."

"It was an accident. I'm ok now." Phoebe lied. She wasn't, she felt shaky and really sick but she wouldn't ever have admitted it to Finn even if her life depended on it. He was trying so hard to be brave for her even though she had burned him; she had to be brave too.

"Y'promise?" he asked, looking up at her.

"Firefly's honour."

"Kay then."

They sat in silence for a while, watching their Mama try to talk to Jake a little way away.

"Where do you think Mom went?" Phoebe asked after a few long minutes.

"Dunno. To get some help?"

Yeah, that made sense to her. She needed her Shield back before she went anywhere else and that needed someone with fire magic. So Mom had probably gone to get Uncle Flambo. In a minute more she was back, and Phoebe nodded in relief. Flambo was riding on the top of her parasol, clinging on carefully to the metal parts and trying not to burn the cloth.

"Hey there little princess, I heard you had an accident." he said the moment they landed, coming over and offering her a bright smile. Phoebe smiled back even though it hurt, Flambo knew her better than anyone but her family. "Guys, you'll need to give us a bit of space." he added, shooing Finn to one side. Her brother scrambled up and hid in the shade of Mom's parasol and they drifted off to one side together, watching worriedly from a distance.

"I know it must still hurt terribly." Flambo said quietly the minute they were out of earshot. "It's gonna keep on hurting until you're dried out completely and that might take hours if we can't speed it up. Am I right in thinking a brave little dame like yourself doesn't wanna worry her two over protective mothers?"

Phoebe nodded again. It was good to have another flame elemental around her sometimes, someone who understood what it was like to eat wood and coal and be mortally afraid of water. Flambo smiled gently and put his blazing hand on hers, squeezing reassuringly. Phoebe was more thankful than she could say for the contact; nobody else could touch her yet.

"Uncle Flambo, am I gonna die?" she whispered to him.

"Nah, you're gonna be fine! And I have just the thing to help. Now whatever you do don't tell your mothers I gave you this, ok? It's only supposed to be for adult flame elementals and your Mom especially scares me ash outta me. But you're sick and this is gonna make you better, it's about the only thing that'll help right now."

Out of nowhere he pulled a small metal flask and unscrewed the lid, keeping it close to his chest and away from Marceline's line of vision.

"What is it?" Phoebe asked curiously.

"Rocket fuel."

She gasped; rocket fuel burned far hotter than gasoline and she was only allowed a little of that at a time. Phoebe looked around worriedly but neither of her parents had hurried forwards to stop them. Flambo offered her the lid from the flask; no bigger than a large thimble and filled almost up to the top with strong smelling liquid.

"Quick now or it'll evaporate." he told her, pressing it into her steaming hands. Phoebe glanced around one more time to be sure, then gulped it down in one guilty mouthful.

It was instantaneous; one second she was sitting still smouldering damply with a dull aching agony like a heartbeat pulsing all over her body, the next there was a colossal rush of energy all around and through her. She throbbed brightly and the hurting disappeared completely, in its place a vast rush of strength and energy swamped her limbs. Phoebe felt amazingly giddy, like she could burn the whole world. She was so bright, she looked down at herself and saw her body was glowing almost white hot, shimmering with the haze of her own heat. Next second Flambo was muttering his flame magic and she was back to her usual flickering blue, flinging her arms around his little neck with an elated laugh and hugging him tightly.

"Thanks Uncle Flambo, you're the best!"

Then she was up and running again, skidding across to where Jake sat peering out from a small gap in his arm cocoon. She threw herself down on top of him and hugged him, too.

"You're a butt, Jacob Dogbreath Poo Brain. But I love you anyway!"

"I love you too. You scared me." he replied quietly, stretching his arms around to hug her back. "I should have stretched down to rescue you, only I got scared and couldn't move. You nearly died because of me. I'm so sorry."

She shook her head brightly, too giddy from the after effects of the rocket fuel to really take in what he was saying.

Her Mom sidled up to her on the walk back to the palace, slipping a gloved hand across her shoulders.

"Rocket fuel?" she asked quietly.

"How did you know? Flambo said not to tell you. You're not mad at him, are you? Uncle Flambo said you scare the ash outta him, please don't be mad."

"I've seen it before. Don't tell your Mama, she'll only worry. And no, Firefly, I'm not mad at him. If it helps when you're hurt then I don't care what he gives you, he knows more about how to fix your flames than I do. He's just scared of me because one time I threatened to see if I could suck the life outta him, I was just kidding. Mostly."

Phoebe nodded and reached up to take her Mom's hand, happy beyond words she could touch her again without causing her skin to bubble and blister.

"Sorry I ruined your birthday." Phoebe whispered.

"I've had literally hundreds of them anyway, and it's not ruined. It was just one bit of the day that got a bit scary, that's all. We can still have a cosy film night tonight. You wanna chose the movie?"

"Yes! Can we watch Robin Hood?"

"The one with the foxes? Sure! That's a great choice."

Phoebe nodded happily and squeezed her Mom's hand, then ran forward to catch up with her brothers.

Mostly they remembered that day as being the one when Phoebe fell in the river, the one when Marceline nearly burned herself to death saving her and Flambo used some mysterious magic to make her fire flare brilliantly white hot for a moment. Phoebe remembered it as the day she first found out she could hurt people with her flames, the day she first tried rocket fuel and discovered how fiercely her fire could burn. But Jake remembered it as the day he decided he wanted to be a hero, not just a useless crown prince anymore.


	12. Chapter 12

**Have another chapter. Assuming Victoria is ten in this chapter that means Finn is eleven, Phoebe is twelve and Jake is developmentally about seventeen. Y'know, just in case it isn't obvious how much time has passed since the last chaper (about three years).**

 **Content Warning: more Dad rock lyrics because I grew up listening to my mother's Free and Cat Stevens records and feel like they're definitely the sort of music Simon would dig, arguments, misunderstandings involving female biology.**

* * *

Sometimes at night there was a dark shape watching her from outside the Ice Fort. Victoria often tried to talk to the stranger but she knew better than to try to follow them when they disappeared into the air. Sometimes she just instinctively felt eyes on her face and knew they were there again. As she grew she decided it must be her fairy godmother or something similar; someone watching over her to keep her safe. She wondered if maybe it was her Mom. Dad never spoke of her, when she asked him he only said she was his magic baby, that he'd made her all on his own with special magic. Victoria hadn't believed him since she was very young, there was just something about the way he said it that let her know it wasn't the truth.

Victoria knew her Dad wasn't always completely there. Some days he stared at her just a little too long before he said her name, sometimes she got the feeling he'd forgotten something she'd just told him days or weeks ago. She took to telling all her troubles to the dark figure in the sky, just because she didn't have anyone else to talk to.

"I wish my Dad would tell me the truth. I know I'm not a magic baby he created out of the air. Do you think he's ever gonna tell me who my real Mom is?"

The dark figure didn't reply, but its restless bobbing up and down stilled a little at her voice.

"I just mean," she continued, "I love him to bits and he's the best father ever but sometimes I want another lady around. Like, how am I supposed to know what to do with makeup and clothes and stuff? Does he think the penguins will show me? And what's gonna happen when I get my periods? Will I even get periods? Am I really made of magic or am I a regular person like everyone else? I'm just really lucky I have a lot of books, can you imagine getting a period and not knowing what it is? I'd have freaked out and probably just assumed I was dying or something. I'm not a little kid anymore! I'm ten years old now, why can't he just be honest with me about where I came from?"

No reply, but she thought perhaps the figure cocked their head to one side and peered at her intensely. It was hard to tell; she was too far away and the snow was falling too thickly to see much more than a vague dark outline silhouetted against a slightly darker sky.

"I brought my guitar." Victoria said quietly. Her Dad had insisted on showing her how to play and she took a lot of joy from writing her own songs and sitting out at night playing them to the stars. She wasn't talented like the musicians in her Dad's record collection but she loved to play anyway, jangling out tunes to amuse herself and the penguins with. "If you wanna listen you can stay, if not then I understand. You probably have mysterious dark figure things to do, anyways."

Victoria hesitated when the figure didn't move from where they hung in the air above the opposite slope. So they wanted to hear her play? She wasn't sure if she felt brave enough to sing anything she'd written herself. So she started strumming her battered old guitar and singing a song her Dad had taught her, one of the ancient ones he sang a lot.

 _If you wanna sing out, sing out._

 _And if you wanna be free, be free._

 _'Cause there's a million things to be,_

 _You know that there are._

 _And if you wanna be high, be high,_

 _If you wanna be low, be low._

 _There's a million ways to go._

 _You know that there are._

Victoria carried on singing, working through the jaunty tune and warbling the lyrics as best she could. She knew she had no real vocal talent but it was fun to add words to the music she made. Eventually the song finished and she applauded herself and took a bow, because the dark figure still hadn't moved.

"That's one of the first ones Dad taught me to play." she told the night air. "The chords aren't too hard and it's a fun tune. He said I can be anything I want when I grow up. Do you think that's true? I want to leave the Ice Kingdom and see the world but Dad says I'm too young. It's so boring here, I wish I had some friends."

Still the dark figure failed to reply, not that she'd ever expected it to. Victoria sighed and fiddled with her guitar strap. It bothered her, she hated that practically the only contact she had with the outside world was entirely one sided. She didn't even know the gender of the person she was talking to. Suddenly she was feeling sad; the melancholy that had plagued her thoughts lately and always seemed just a heartbeat away suddenly reared up from under the surface of her mind with a vengeance. She wanted to play something sad. She sat down again and cradled the guitar in her lap, tentatively working through the slow intro to one the saddest tunes in her Dad's ancient pre-war record collection.

 _Just a young man._

 _By an old road._

 _By this road he chose._

 _An ancient song,_

 _In an old tongue._

 _For this man_

 _Was sung._

 _Oh I'm carrying a heavy load_

 _Can't go no further down this long road._

Victoria paused, still strumming the chords but unable to remember which set of set of lyrics came next. She jumped in shock when a feminine voice, considerably more tuneful and practiced than her own, began the next verse.

 _By a bright stream,_

 _Came an old dream._

 _Things are never what they always seem._

 _And so she went on._

 _Travelling on._

 _Now she's a long way from home._

 _Lord, I'm carrying a heavy load._

 _Can't go no further down this long road._

Victoria stopped playing and stood up, running forward a couple of steps closer to where the dark figure hung in the air. This was more contact with anyone outside of the Ice Kingdom than she'd ever had in her life and her heart was hammering excitedly in her chest. But the figure moved backwards through the drifting snow, fading from view long before the darkness should have swallowed it- her. It was a female voice, Victoria was sure of it.

"Wait! Please, come back!" she shouted into the darkness. "I just wanted to talk to you." she added quietly to herself, feeling her eyes prick with cold tears.

...

"Where were you? You missed dinner."

"I went out."

"Out? Just... out?"

"Just out. Flying."

"Yeah I figured that. Flying where? You were gone for hours."

"I dunno, around. Flying. You know, just… flying."

"Marcy please, do you think after almost ten years of marriage I don't know you well enough to tell when you're lying to me?"

Marceline sighed and pressed her teeth briefly against her bottom lip, then remembered too late that that was a dead giveaway when she was nervous about something. Bonnibel frowned harder at her and narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"You're not gonna like it." Marcy muttered to her wife. She still felt intensely stupid for even going, especially for getting sentimental about Simon's old song and joining in when there was a gap in the lyrics. That had been a bad mistake; she shouldn't even have let Victoria see her outline.

"You went to the Ice Kingdom, didn't you?"

She just hung her head, ashamed. She'd promised to just leave them to it, not to contact Simon or his daughter again. But she'd wanted to check the girl was ok, she knew how hard it could be growing up without a mother and in the care of someone who might just forget about her at any moment. Perhaps Bonnibel could forget that Victoria existed, but Marceline couldn't bring herself to be that cold about an innocent child.

Bonnie just sighed and turned away from her.

"I can always tell when you go over there, you know. I've known for years. You come home with this vacant faraway look in your eyes, like you're only halfway here. And I never wanted to intrude, I let you keep your secrets from me if was what you needed to do. But you missed dinner with the family tonight and I had to make excuses for your absence, and that isn't ok. You can lie to me about where you are all you want but I refuse to lie to our children for you."

Well, it had been a while since they'd had a big row about something. Marceline found she didn't have the energy to keep her temper in check; she whirled on the other woman and spoke in an angry snarl.

"I'm not lying to them! Or to you! I just went out flying, found myself near the Ice Kingdom and dropped by to check that Simon hadn't starved his daughter to death or something, ok? I can't just ignore them and pretend they don't exist! I feel bad for her! She's all alone with him and he's-"

"I know why you feel bad for her, Marceline! But she's not you! And you're not responsible for her! I didn't know where you were and-"

"And you're a damn control freak and it just kills you that I go places without you sometimes, yeah Bon, I know!"

Bonnie glared at her wife; Marceline knew how much she hated being interrupted when she was speaking. And yeah perhaps she was a control freak sometimes, but didn't she deserve to know where her wife disappeared to for hours at a time? Wouldn't that make anyone worried?

But the vampire didn't want to listen when she was angry, she felt too wrong footed from accidentally interacting with Victoria, she didn't have enough head space to deal with Bonnie being pissed that she'd not known where she was. She pushed past the other woman angrily and out of the hall, back out into the dark courtyard. It was low but she knew she wouldn't be followed; Bonnibel had never completely gotten over her fear of the dark since the Grimmalk had kidnapped her and it was black as pitch outside the golden halo of the courtyard. Instead Bonnie stood wringing her hands in the doorway, watching her wife stride away into the blackness.

"Where are you going now? Marcy, come on, please!"

Marceline paused when she heard the genuine pleading in Bonnie's voice. But she didn't turn around. She spoke back over her shoulder, only just keeping her tone civil.

"Just… just give me some space for a bit, yeah? I'll be back later. I just gotta go think about some stuff."

She distinctly heard Bonnie mutter "drama queen," as she exited the courtyard, glowering darkly at the path leading off through the mostly deserted village. It was late and she was angry and hurt; she took to the air and flew off in the direction of the forest by pure instinct.

If she wanted to she could almost have pretend like the last ten years hadn't happened. She was back in her favourite tree, staring moodily at the moon and trying to justify a stupid argument where she'd hurt the woman she loved because she'd been angry mostly with herself. There was even still the old deep scar where she'd kicked an ancient tree in a fit of temper, partly overgrown with new bark but still there if she looked for it. Just like everything else she'd broken in anger and never quite managed to fix. Marceline sighed and hung her head, defeated.

"Guess I'm still just the same stupid donkus." she mumbled sadly to herself.

...

"Where's Mom?"

"She went out flying."

"She's still out? But she promised to help me with my history homework!"

"I'm sorry, sweetie. She must have forgotten."

"No, Mom never ever forgets anything. Are you two fighting again?"

Bonnie briefly rubbed her temples in a vain attempt to head off the awful stress migraine she could feel building there. Pretty soon she'd be in bed, vomiting up her dinner, unable to walk more than a few steps without support. She supposed she'd been lucky; she could have suffered much worse long term effects from her brain injury. But Finn wasn't helping her stress levels at all and she didn't think she'd be able to focus on his homework for long without her vision swimming alarmingly.

"Please, Finn. Go ask Uncle Stefan or someone, I can't help you right now."

He put his books down and hugged her instead. Sometimes Finn surprised them all with flashes of sensitivity that he normally hid behind an enthusiastically macho exterior. Bonnie held onto him tightly, resting her face against his long blonde hair. It was silky and soft just like his Mom's. Finn had grown it deliberately to be more like Marceline. He probably would have died rather than admit it but he absolutely hero worshiped her, he had ever since he was a baby.

"I don't like it when Mom makes you upset, Mama." he said quietly, rubbing her back with his free hand.

"Neither do I. But we're just having a disagreement, honey. She'll be back soon enough. And it's grown up stuff, it's nothing for you to worry about, ok?"

"Kay." he replied, shuffling back and looking at her intently. "Are you guys gonna get a divorce?"

It was so unexpected Bonnie actually laughed, some of the tension disappeared from her head at the surprise humour. Poor Finn, a couple of his school friends' parents had divorced recently and he was still too young to understand how adult relationships really worked; to him it must seem that if they had a bit of a fight about something then that might be it, over forever.

"No, sweetie! We're not getting divorced. We just had a fight and your Mom went off someplace to think about what a donkus she's been. She'll be back and full of apologies soon." Bonnie replied with a smile, pushing a lot more confidence into her words than she really felt. No, they weren't getting a divorce. But perhaps they weren't as perfectly rock solid as she was making out to Finn either, if Marceline could just forget about how traumatised she still was about the whole Victoria situation and disappear like that. Bonnie felt suddenly rather guilty; she'd been upset with Marcy for lying by omission but she was doing exactly the same thing now, telling little white lies to reassure her son. Finn just smiled tremulously at her and slipped one arm around her waist, helping her towards the doors of her study and up to the stairs.

"You're getting a stress migraine." he murmured knowingly. "You should go to bed. I'll ask Stefan to help me with my history later."

Bonnie just nodded, distracted by the growing tangle of agony behind her eyes. When had Finn become so perceptive? And tall enough to take a good portion of her weight? He helped her up the few flights of stairs into their tower and down the hall to her bedroom, he didn't even turn away with teenaged embarrassment when she needed his help to undress for bed. It was still relatively early, just past eight, but her head was pounding and she needed to lie down before she fell down.

"Thank you, Finn." Bonnie whispered as he pulled the blankets up around her shoulders.

Instead of leaving he sat on the edge of the bed, twirling his ponytail distractedly. She waited, he was clearly working up to asking her something.

"Mama?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something kinda personal?"

"Sure, honey. What is it?"

"I, um, some of the boys at school were talking about something and I don't think what they were saying was really true but I didn't know and I wanted to ask because, um, you said I could ask you anything and... I dunno, it's stupid and gross."

"What is it, sweetie? You're right, you can ask me anything." Bonnie replied gently around the thrumming pain beginning to intensify in her head. Finn had awful timing, she wished he'd saved whatever his question was until the morning.

He fiddled with his ponytail more and wriggled uncomfortably. She waited patiently, trying to ignore the nausea that was rolling in to join the pain. She wished he'd just spit it out but Finn was just like his Mom, it did absolutely no good to hurry him when he was trying to say something.

"Dogirlspeethemselveswhentheydosexwitheachother?" he muttered all in one rushed breath, mostly too quickly for her to catch. She just stared at him and tried not to laugh, she was almost certain she'd heard a couple of words in there that were related to The Talk that Marceline had been putting off having with him.

"One more time? More slowly please."

"Do girls pee themselves when they do sex? Because Bradley in my class said they don't and his big brother Peter said they pee all over themselves when they do it and Phoebe told me to go jump off the tower when I asked her and Jake said I didn't need to know and to stop asking him pervert questions. And I don't want to ask Aunt Tilda or Aunt Zoe because they might tell me super gross things. Uncle Stefan looked like he was gonna choke when I asked him and said he'd never asked a lady about it and he didn't want to know. And I wanted to ask Mom but she went out after your fight."

Finn's face was a deep beetroot colour when he finished his little speech and for a long moment Bonnie didn't know how to answer him. Of course he had a sex question, right now, when she was sick and unprepared and distracted by Marceline's stupid theatrics.

"Because if you're gonna pee on Mom when you make up I don't wanna know, but I just didn't wanna look like an idiot when the boys at school are talking about it." he added quietly, looking down with intense concentration at his fingernails.

"Oh Grod, Finn, no. Please just stop talking for a minute. Nobody is peeing on anyone, ok? Nobody in this family has ever peed on anyone else in this family, unless you count when you were a baby and had accidents before we got your fresh diaper on. No. No pee. I think what you're actually referring to is called an orgasm, and some ladies produce a little bit of fluid when that happens. It's not quite the same thing as when a man does it but it can still be a little messy sometimes. They don't usually pee on themselves when it happens though. Ok?"

He nodded, still unable to look her in the eye.

"Did you want to talk more about it or are you going to go do your homework and let me rest?"

He did look up then, smiling a little even if his cheeks were still brilliantly red.

"I didn't really need any help, I just wanted to ask Mom. I hope you guys make up soon. Mom can be a butt sometimes but she really loves you, everyone knows it. Thanks, Mama." he said, giving her a quick hug and hurrying out of the room, still blushing furiously. Bonnie stared after him, head throbbing painfully and mind swirling in confusion. First Jake had unexpectedly hit puberty, now Finn was asking questions about how female sexual biology worked. Where had the time gone, when had her sweet baby boys grown up? She just wanted Marcy to come home and they could laugh about it together, not be angry or hurt by each other.

...

The bedroom was in darkness but Marceline knew almost before she landed that Bonnie had gone to bed with another one of her stress migraines. Shame flooded her; she hadn't meant to cause her wife to get ill. She fiddled nervously with the stems of the wildflower bouquet she'd hastily picked before she opened the balcony doors and quietly slipped inside. At least Bonnie hadn't locked her out; she must at least be open to the idea of talking things through. A quiet voice addressed her hoarsely from the darkness as she closed the door behind herself.

"Marcy? Leave it open a little, please. A cool breeze might help my head some."

"Hey. Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I just... I had a fright when I went to see Victoria and I knew you'd disapprove. I didn't mean to get angry or take it out on you. And I'm sorry I stormed off, I was being really stupid. I got you flowers." Marceline added hopefully, holding the bouquet up in the moonlight.

"You're a massive asshole sometimes." Bonnie told her in her scratchy ill voice.

"Yeah, I know. I'm so sorry."

"And you can't just fix it all by bringing me flowers."

"Are you sure? There are poppies in here, and wild roses. Giant daisies too. All your favourites."

The silence stretched between them, tense and heavy.

"...I do love roses." Bonnie mumbled after a while, rolling over from where she'd been lying on her side to look Marceline in the eyes. "But that doesn't change that you're a massive asshole."

"I know. I am sorry, babe. I just... I guess I regressed for a bit? But I want to make it up to you now and I swear I won't ever go over there again." Marceline replied softly. She was still consumed with guilt; she hated knowing Bonnie was sick because of her.

"Please don't make promises we both know you won't keep. You'll worry about Victoria again and sneak off to go check she's ok again and I'll pretend not to notice again. So just let it lie, ok? It's something we'll never agree on and I am so sick of fighting already. Put those in some water and come to bed. You've got to get some rest, tomorrow after school you're giving Finn the sex talk."

"I am?"

"He wanted to know if women pee themselves when they come. And he'd managed to absolutely horrify himself by wondering if I was going to pee on you, because of some rubbish the boys at school were saying. I think we need to re-evaluate how early we introduce the sex ed lessons in the curriculum if this is the sort of stupid rumours schoolboys are spreading."

Marceline stared at her, horrified and confused.

"Why would he ever think that? Why would he ever ask you? Oh Glob, why?"

Bonnie just shrugged and the grimaced when the movement jostled her aching head. Marceline floated over to the bathroom to fill a jug with water and deposit the wildflowers before stripping off and hovering nervously by her side of the bed.

"Are we ok?" she whispered into the darkness.

"Depends. You gonna disappear for hours and lie to me about where you've been again?"

She shook her head no, still too ashamed to really talk about it.

"Right, then we're ok. I can't stop you from going over there from time to time, just to check. But it hurts that you feel the need to lie to me about it. Please stop doing that, and I'll try to accept that sometimes you need to visit her for your own peace of mind. Now get your butt into bed and try not to pee on me, please."

They both burst into quiet laughter as the vampire slipped in between the sheets and wrapped her arms around her wife tenderly.

"You're too ill." Marceline murmured against her hair. "No peeing on anyone tonight. You need to rest."

"Yeah, I know. Maybe tomorrow, if I feel better."

Bonnie took hold of Marceline's cool hand and rested it on her throbbing forehead with a relieved sigh.


	13. Chapter 13

**Humm well I was gonna do this chapter as a one shot but it got up to full size story length so now it's just an extra chapter in the story. Apologies for the delay in posting, I got distracted by other projects. Sorry, I suck.**

 **Content Warning: Your favourite vampire wants to have A Little Chat with you. So expect descriptions of le sexy time, adult relationship dynamics and organism fluid. Poor traumatised Finn.**

* * *

True to her promise when Finn got home from school the next day it was to find his Mom waiting for him with an unreadably serious expression on her face. Peppermint Butler had directed him from the courtyard, telling him she was waiting for him in the throne room. One glance at her face let him know it wasn't going to be something fun.

"What? I didn't do it. Whatever it was, it was Jake. Or Phoebe, she's lying about it, tryna get me in trouble. Did the school call you? Did I do something? I didn't do anything!"

"Relax, squirt. I just wanna have a little chat with you."

Finn narrowed his eyes suspiciously. That did not bode well, normally his parents just said whatever they had to say to him without telling him they were about to have A Little Chat. He glanced around nervously.

"C'mon, grab your brother and sister and we'll go down to the sun room. I've got some family stuff I wanna talk to you all about."

She floated off towards the door leaving Finn to stare after her. He shook his head worriedly and tugged the end of his braid before sighing and following, calling to Jake and Phoebe as he went. They joined him in the hall, peering at him curiously.

"Mom wants to talk to all three of us. She's acting really weird. I think something's up." Finn muttered as they walked. Phoebe's flames danced with sudden anxiety.

"What do you mean 'weird'? What's going on? Perhaps Mama's sick?"

"Nah, she'd have just told us that. This is something else. They had a big fight yesterday. Maybe... maybe they're getting a divorce? I asked Mama about it last night and she said they weren't but what if she changed her mind? Mom can be a total butt sometimes, maybe Mama got tired of her?" Finn replied in a voice laced with panic.

"Dude, what did she actually say? Maybe it's not that bad?" Jake interrupted.

"She said... um... we were gonna have a, um, 'a little chat' and she had some stuff she wanted to talk to us about, family stuff."

Jake just stared at him with a lopsided little smile on his face.

"Is it actually possible you don't know what Mom's about to tell you? Oh man, Finn. I already had a Little Chat with Mama a few years ago, I can tell you right now they're not getting divorced but by the end of it you'll wish that was all they wanted to talk to you about." Jake replied with a rueful grin.

"Oh shit." Phoebe whispered, horrified. Jake nodded, of course his freakishly clever sister had already worked it out.

"What? What did I miss?" Finn asked, staring between them.

"Mom's gonna give us the sex talk." Phoebe replied. She grimaced a little, obviously not looking forward to it any more than her little brother. Finn's face was a picture of horrified disgust but he'd run out of time to express it; they were already at the door of the sun room.

"Sit down, guys." Marceline grinned at them when they entered. Finn's expression told her they knew why they were there and she fought down the urge to fidget nervously. The most important thing was not to let them know she was nervous too, to make it a conversation instead of a lecture and hopefully maintain her responsible adult credentials for as long as it took to cover the basics. Marceline didn't exactly have much frame of reference for how these kinds of talk usually went. "Jake, you don't need to be here if you don't wanna, I know you know this stuff already."

Her eldest son just shrugged and stretched out into an armchair with a grin. Phoebe promptly sat on him and Jake stretched his neck up to see over his sister's warm blazing head.

"Alright, cool. So. Today I gotta talk to you three about sex." Marcy waited until their various expressions of horror had subsided before continuing. "I don't mean the actual, y'know, the biology parts about what bits go where and how the logistics work. You get to have that fun talk with your Mama because apparently she thinks I might not be able to explain all the science bits properly. And school should have covered most of the basics already. But I mean, like, the other stuff? Emotions and stuff. Like, relationships really. Not just sex."

"You didn't bring your guitar, did you?" Finn burst out in horror, staring around the room for any sign of concealed musical instruments. Marceline laughed out loud at the expression on her youngest son's face.

"Scared I'm gonna sing you a song about the butterflies and bees, little man? Nah, I was just gonna talk it out with you. But if I did make it into a song it would be epic and you'd find yourself humming it all the time whether you wanted to or not. But I wouldn't be that cruel."

"Ok, just, you might have. It wouldn't be completely out of character for you. I just... no, let's not sing a song about sex stuff." Finn replied, relief briefly replacing panic on his features.

"Alright. No singing. But your Mama told me you had some specific questions yesterday about ladies and how their bodies work?"

Finn blushed beet red and Phoebe glared at him like she was personally offended to discover that her little brother was entering puberty and developing and interest in female biology.

"It was stupid, just something one of the boys at school said and I didn't know if it was really true but Mama explained it all already and we really don't need to talk about it anymore and-"

"Dude, is this the girl peeing thing again?" Jake interrupted. "I told you that was gross and you didn't need to know that pervert stuff! I can't believe you went and annoyed Mama with it when she was ill!"

"Ok? Alright! But boys have like, stuff that comes out of them! So maybe girls do to? And yeah, apparently they do, but like, not as much? Anyway it isn't even pee. It's, um… organism fluid." Finn countered, avoiding his brother's eyes.

"Gross, man." Jake replied. "Why do you care what comes out of girls?"

"Boys." Marceline interrupted them. "If you have questions, you might want to direct them to the adult who is here to answer them? Yes, Finn, sometimes girls can have fluid that comes out of them too. Sex is generally kinda messy and actually there's nothing wrong with that. It's completely normal for it to be messy. But that's the biology stuff and it wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about. You have a fun and very in depth lecture with you Mama to look forward to for that when she's feeling a bit better and had time to put together a proper written test for afterwards."

Finn made a face and Phoebe muttered "Gross. Thanks, Finn." under her breath.

"So, um, now that you're all getting older and you're turning into squishy bags of hormones you need to know about relationships and things because one day you'll end up having one. Probably. I mean, you don't have to? But you'll probably want to. Not that there's anything wrong with not wanting a relationship either, but they're pretty fun and awesome so most people like to at least experiment with them. Anyway, the important thing is to know when you're ready to have a physical relationship." Marcy continued, automatically shape shifting her own embarrassment away to keep her face calm and gentle.

"Don't you like, need to get married first?" Jake asked.

"Nah, you don't have to. You can if you want but I dunno, I think it's better to get to know someone first before you get legally bound to them. Y'know? In case they turn out to be a massive butthole." She resolutely did not allow herself to start thinking about Ash and how messily that could have ended if she'd had to marry him first, but it was a close thing. "But it's a little different for you guys. You're royalty so you've gotta be extra specially careful about who you pair up with. Because of international politics and stuff. I don't like it any more than you do but the hard truth is that if you piss off your partner and their parents have access to a standing army the next thing you know we're being invaded and everyone gets dragged into a messy war, so just, be careful please."

Jake nodded, thoughtful.

"But like, how do you know when you're ready?" he asked hesitantly after a moment.

"Excellent question, Jakey. Truth is there's no one thing that lets you know, you just kinda... know. Does that make sense? Probably not. But this is the point where other parents would tell you that sex is only something you have for the purposes of making babies with someone you really love. Ok, that's awesome too. But you should know by now that I'm not like other parents and there's no point in me lying to you about how the world works. So yeah, casual sex can be fun and not something to automatically assume is bad. Tons of people have it and there's nothing wrong with that so long as you're certain that everyone involved knows that's all it is. But you absolutely have to make sure the other person understands your intentions. And you need to be certain of their intentions too. Quickest way to do that is to have a conversation about it. So, like, talk to each other. That's pretty solid advice for most every kind of relationship problem anyway. Fighting might feel like a good idea when you're mad but you'll only end up wasting time and hurting people then sitting down and talking it through afterwards. Or driving them away. Fighting never solves anything. I am perfectly aware of how much of a gigantic hypocrite I sound right now, by the way."

Phoebe sniggered into her hand and shared an amused glance with her brothers out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, that's fair." Marceline sighed, running a hand through her hair in embarrassment. "I suck at taking my own advice. But am the veteran of a bajillion relationship fights, trust my extensive research that they do not help. Ever. Even when you think you're in the right; especially when you think you're in the right. Nine times out of ten if you just apologise then your partner will too. So try to be the bigger person, yeah?"

Phoebe raised her hand timidly; it wasn't like her to be shy about anything unless she was feeling insecure. Marcy kept her frown as internal as possible as she nodded to her daughter.

"You said it was... messy. And stuff comes out of people? Like, watery stuff? Orgasm fluid?" Phoebe asking in a quiet voice, eyes fixed on her flickering blue feet.

"Yeah, Firefly. I know what you're thinking. You're gonna need to be extra specially careful if you're gonna be intimate with anyone not made of fire in the future. I don't even wanna think about how much that could hurt you. But there are ways to keep actual fluids from touching you while still enjoying each other intimately. School told you about condoms already, right?"

All three kids nodded, they knew what condoms were and how they were used.

"Cool. I'm glad we're making those things again, for a few hundred years after the Mushroom War you couldn't get them anywhere. That's what makes the Kingdom rich, guys. Your crazy clever Mama sees something we need and sets up production and export businesses to other Kingdoms. We're not just living in a palace of sugar; it's metaphorically built out of condoms as well as loads of other useful stuff too." Marcy replied with a crooked grin. Jake was eyeing the walls like they were personally trying to reach out and impregnate him. The expression on his face was priceless.

"Anyway," Marcy continued, "You'll probably need to use those. Or some other form of thin but durable waterproof depending on the downstairs apparatus your partner has. There's a thriving trade in magic that promises to work just like condoms or other barrier methods but trust me it isn't that effective. Do not put all of your trust into magic. It's tricky and it lets you down a lot. If you don't use some kinda physical barrier you're at risk of getting nasty diseases and depending on the biology of your partner maybe unwanted pregnancies too. Pregnancy might be something you do want to happen someday but gross sex diseases definitely aren't."

She repressed the spike of irrational panic that wanted to flare in her mind at that; because they were her _babies_ , they had no business going around having babies of their own and making her into someone's grandmother. She still didn't really feel any older than nineteen and the thought of being called 'grandma' by anyone was chilling. But it would almost certainly happen sooner or later; better get used to the idea now. In the back of her mind Marcy supposed she'd always vaguely known that her kids having kids was something that might happen eventually. They were mortal and mortals grew up and fell in love and had babies and aged no matter how much their vampire mother might wish it otherwise. It was in their nature even if it felt supremely weird to an ageless immortal.

"On the topic of staying safe, there's something else I want you guys to consider. When you're getting intimate with someone you're usually not thinking very critically and you'll be at your most vulnerable. So before you give in to your hormones and get freaky with them ask yourself, would I trust this person to hold a knife against my throat? Have I got any reason to think this person wants to hurt me? See, that's why it's a good idea to get to know them a bit first. You're royalty so you're higher risk for stuff like abduction and assassination attempts. We're keeping you guys as safe as possible while you grow but once you're adults it's pretty much up to you to look after yourselves. Please, for my sake if not your own, don't do anything unnecessarily dangerous. I love you little guys so much, y'know?"

" _Mooom_ ," Finn whined, embarrassed at her expression of parental affection. "Stop saying that you love us, it's so lame."

"I love you too, Mom. And I promise to stay safe." Jake spoke over his younger brother with a world weary eye roll.

"Me too." Phoebe added. Finn sulked visibly; he was getting so outspoken since he'd started to shoot up and Marceline worried about him being so often at odds with his siblings. Finn had always been pretty strong willed but he was more and more often stubborn and moody.

"Finn." Marcy said gently, drawing his reluctant gaze to her face. "I know this is a lot to think about and it can be kinda scary at first. Trust me, there's no perfect way to have these kinda conversations. But I'm telling you this because you're my son and I do love you and I want you to be able to enjoy adult relationships in a healthy and safe way when you grow up. I know it can sound really messed up when you first hear all of this and I totally understand if you need some time to process it all."

Briefly she repressed an ancient memory; Simon's horrified face when she'd innocently asked him about how the babies got inside the ladies' tummies and the long rambling talk about rabbits and tadpoles and confusing flower metaphors they'd had afterwards. Lucky she'd been functionally dead by the time she came to require any of that vague tadpole-and-rabbit knowledge so pregnancies and diseases hadn't really been relevant to her. Not that she'd have known how to avoid either of them had they been an issue anyway but at least she hadn't ended up in deeper trouble than just sleeping her way around the Citadel had caused.

"But how do you even know what to do when you sex with someone? Like, do you just know, like how you know how to run? Or is there specific stuff you're meant to do that you gotta practice and stuff?" Phoebe asked after a minute of quiet introspection. Her Mom managed not to frown but they were getting worryingly close to discussing the actual biology and she absolutely hadn't signed up for that; that was Bonnie's gig and Marceline didn't want to have that conversation with anyone she'd ever changed a diaper on.

"Ok, Firefly. That's a pretty good question and it's a hard one to answer properly because it changes from person to person. Some people like some stuff and other people like other stuff. A lot of it depends on who you're getting freaky with and some of it you might know what to do and some of it might be new. But what do you think, what's the best way to find out?" Marcy asked her. Phoebe frowned thoughtfully.

"Um... you could ask them what they like?" she finally replied.

"Yep. Even if it feels awkward at the time having a conversation is a million times easier than doing something wrong in the heat of the moment and having to stop and apologise and try to fix things when you're both feeling really vulnerable. Especially if it's new and you're still trying to figure each other out. Trust me, that's a really quick way to end up arguing and quite possibly breaking up instead of doing fun things together." Marceline replied with a nod, relieved that Phoebe had worked it out.

"Ok? But then, what if they ask me what I like? How do I know? I don't know what I like! What if I don't like anything?" Phoebe asked again, flames flickering in distress and panic.

"Hey, relax darling. Some people just don't enjoy sex and that's fine too. It's like... " Marcy floundered, casting around for a comparison for a moment. "You know how you guys all like candy?" They nodded, even Phoebe enjoyed sugary things provided they didn't have much water content. "And your Mama won't eat anything that isn't covered in sugar, she actually needs it to be able to get any nutrition out of her food. But you know that I can't digest sugar. I've never been able to eat anything sugary. It's a bit like that, only you replace sugar with sex. Some people's biology just means they don't enjoy sex. But there's nothing wrong with them, it's just how they're built. And a lot of them still enjoy close romantic relationships, they just do so with their pants on. So maybe you're one of those people and maybe you're not and you won't be completely sure for a while yet and maybe you'll change your mind a few times. It's ok not to be sure. The best advice I can give you is to just relax and not worry about it, you'll work it out if and when you work it out and there's no pressure either way. Ok?"

Phoebe nodded again a little distractedly, staring out of the window at the trees waving in the breeze outside instead of meeting her mother's eyes.

"Do you guys have any other questions?" Marceline asked them carefully. The boys shared a look before mumbling no and Phoebe shook her head distantly, still looking out of the window with a serious, faraway expression on her face.

"Actually Mom, maybe just one?" Jake muttered hesitantly.

"Shoot, Pup. There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Umm. It's kinda... personal." he muttered, avoiding her eyes. "Did you ever, you know, do it with other people? Before you met Mama, I mean."

Oh great, Jake just had to go there. Marceline kept her sigh entirely within her head because it wasn't fair to take it out on him just because she'd made bad decisions in the past. Well she wasn't about to lie to her children about it; she might not be proud of how she'd spent her time amongst other vampires but there was no point denying what had happened. Vampires were highly sexual as a rule and she'd been their Queen; she'd have lost a lot of respect among them if she hadn't had easily negotiated affections. It had been expected of her, as well as being politically important and honestly a lot of fun too. Of course, being honest about it didn't mean she was about to share graphic details.

"Yeah Pup, I did. I've been around for a really long time and I've met a lot of people over the last thousand years. Some of them were people I wanted to get intimate with. But I didn't have an awesome Mom like you guys to give me advice before I did anything with anyone so I had to learn all the stuff I just told you the hard way. And I won't lie to you, I got hurt more than once and I hurt some people and I made a ton of stupid mistakes. I wish I'd stopped and thought more about it a lot of the time but if anyone had told me to stop and think about it when I was actually in the situation I wouldn't have listened anyway because I can be really dumb like that. I won't say I don't have regrets about some people but I did the best I could with the information I had at the time. But then I met your Mama. And I think I knew right away, right from the start, that I wanted to marry her one day. It's just that when you're immortal 'one day' could be literally any time at all, there's no urgency. So it wasn't until we found you guys that I got the kick in the buns I needed to propose to her and organise a wedding. But I'm glad I did because being married to your Mama is the best decision I ever made. Probably I needed to try stuff out a bit with other people first, so I knew how to do it right with her. _The relationship stuff,_ Finn. You know perfectly well what I meant, stop sniggering like that."

Finn grinned at her, his enthusiasm finally restored.

"No more questions?" Marcy asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. The kids looked between themselves and shook their heads with the general consensus that they knew more now than they'd ever wanted to.

"Cool. Well it's getting towards dinner time and I bet you're just dying to get to your homework afterwards, right?"

With various grumbles and complaints the kids trooped out of the sun room, already recovering from the trauma of discovering how adult relationships worked. Marceline followed contemplatively at a comfortable distance; still close enough to watch protectively but with enough space that they didn't feel smothered. She was very suddenly aware that they were growing and changing a little more every day, and she wasn't. In another couple of weeks it would be ten years since the night she'd found Finn and just a few short months her tenth wedding anniversary was looming. And Marceline still just felt mostly nineteen, frozen at the exact same point she'd received the bite. In another year or two Jake would be developmentally older than both of his mothers and their other children would be too, eventually. Marcy had always known it would happen one day but she just hadn't been prepared for the time to sneak past her like that and she wasn't certain she felt comfortable with it yet. She was so lost in thought through dinner that Bonnie asked her a few times if something was wrong without really getting a satisfactory answer.


	14. Chapter 14

**I have no words, I'm so sorry. Two weeks? Two and a half? I don't even know. All I can say is I got stuck in other projects and this story got a little bit delayed. But! I'm back, and I'm over my horrendous writer's block with this story. I'm gonna power through and finish Continuum and then we can start with the massive and exciting job that is Full Circle, which I already have planned out in glorious Technicolor in my head. Please accept my most heartfelt apologies and promises that I won't leave it so long again.**

 **Content Warning: awkward sexytimes roleplay, backstory that probably won't be canon compliant in the long run, emotional teenaged Jake.**

* * *

"Granddaddy!"

Hunson bent to catch the hugs that came hurtling towards him then realised he didn't really need to; the kids must have hit another growth spurt again while he wasn't looking. He straightened up, embarrassed, just before Jake barrelled into him with his tail wagging in excitement.

"Hello, tiny monsters! All set for your slumber party?" he asked jovially.

Bonnibel cast him a disapproving look but he smiled reassuringly to her; it had taken Marceline ten years to talk her wife into letting the kids stay over with him and clearly his daughter-in-law still wasn't wild about the idea. But Hunson had promised faithfully that he was going to be a good and hands-on grandparent, so far he'd followed all their terms to the letter. And it helped that the kids obviously loved him.

"I brought my books!" Phoebe said excitedly, holding her bag out for his inspection.

"Excellent! Did you finish reading Dracula already?"

"Yeah! It was awesome! Mom let us watch the movie too, the one with Dr Van Helsing in it!" Phoebe grinned up at him.

Hunson laughed and ruffled up Phoebe's blue hair flames. Of course Marceline had insisted on watching Christopher Lee's Dracula with the kids, she loved trashy vampire films.

"Be good for your grandfather." Bonnibel was saying to the children, kissing each one on the cheek in turn. "We'll be back tomorrow afternoon and if I hear that you've been one speck of trouble for him then you can forget about orchestra, library and sword fighting privileges for the rest of the month. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Mama." they chorused, only a little sulkily. Hunson wondered what the story was behind that; probably Finn and Phoebe fighting again. His youngest grandson had always been a touch resentful that Phoebe was a year older, now that she was shooting up and towered over him Finn had been acting out more and more. Most of the time they were as thick as thieves but just recently their fights had become a little more serious, less easily resolved. Hunson hoped it was just teenage hormones and not an indication of a deeper rift between his grandchildren.

"Thanks for looking after them, Daddy." Marceline said with a smile.

"Oh it's my pleasure, you two just have yourselves a lovely anniversary night." he replied. And he really did mean it; Hunson never thought he'd ever have such a close relationship with his daughter and her family but somehow he'd ended up being the kind of doting grandfather who came to family dinners once a month and genuinely treasured each and every one of the childish scribbles they'd gifted him over the years.

They settled themselves on and around the sofa, the better to watch the old movies the kids had picked out, and Hunson slid a large bowl of popcorn into Jake's lap with a smile.

"It's to share, Pup. But there's more where that came from if you're feeling hungry."

The enormous smile Jake gave him was entirely worth the disapproving look from his daughter-in-law.

...

"Well that went by fast."

"What did?"

"The last ten years. Does it feel like we've been married for ten years? It doesn't seem like ten years to me."

"No, but I'm immortal. You know I have problems measuring time."

Rather than replying Bonnie leaned in and kissed the tip of her wife's sensitive ear, causing them to drop a few metres closer to the ground though they were still flying high enough that the grasslands looked like a patchwork blanket spread out below them.

"Bonnie! Distract a woman when she's flying, why don't you? What if I'd dropped you?"

"You're not gonna drop me, we both know I've done a whole lot more to distract you than just kiss your ear in mid-air."

Marceline didn't reply, looking away and trying to hide her face from the other woman. That wasn't a very easy thing to do when she was snuggled into a comfortable cradle hold in Marceline's cold arms.

"Aww are you blushing? You are! Cutie pie." Bonnie laughed, leaning in and kissing Marceline's cheek where a spot of deepening colour was just visible by the starlight overhead.

"Shut up, I'm not blushing!"

"Mhm, I believe you."

They touched down on a sandy beach and Bonnibel looked around, confused. She knew she'd been there before but couldn't place it.

"Where are we?" she asked Marceline quietly.

"Ok, I'm gonna come clean. I wasn't entirely sure what you'd like as an anniversary surprise, and then I remembered that with... well, everything that happened, y'know? You never really got to enjoy our honeymoon on the beach. So I called around and managed to find the exact same beach hut. I hope this isn't, like, triggering for you, because if it is I have back up plans and-"

She was cut off by a firm kiss planted against her lips.

"I love it. I love how thoughtful it is, and I also love you, even though you worry about me way more than you need to." Bonnie replied softly against her lips.

"Promise you don't mind?"

"Don't mind? I told you, I love it! And this time we get to enjoy it without having to worry about being extra quiet because of the babies asleep in the next room."

The look Marceline gave her was three parts shock and one part delighted anticipation.

"Bonnie! You're supposed to be the sweet one, you can't say stuff like that!" she gasped in feigned horror.

"Mhm, after a hundred and ten years together I'm fairly confident that most everyone in the world knows I have sex with my wife." she replied with an amused twist to her lips. Marceline looked scandalised.

"There you go again, throwing the 's' word around like some kind of kinky pervert." Marceline sighed theatrically. "It's our _honeymoon_ , you're supposed to be all innocent and virginal."

"Innocent? Is that how you want me to act tonight? Because I definitely remember just yesterday doing something with you that would definitely discredit any claim for me to be virginal." Bonnie replied with a delighted grin, watching in fascination as her wife's cheeks flared again the reminder.

"Pervert." Marceline muttered, sticking her tongue out. "You ambushed me, how am I supposed to keep my hands to myself if you're gonna walk around the bedroom in just your underwear?"

"I can stop doing that if it's a problem for you." Bonnie replied, smiling at the vigorous way Marcy shook her head no. "Well if innocent and virginal is what you want tonight I can certainly try, let me just…"

Bonnie trailed off, thinking for a moment before she let her voice slide up in pitch a little and her eyes widen in faked innocence.

"Ooh no help, I've accidentally been married to a sexy vampire and I'm so innocent and virginal, I hope she doesn't try to take my clothes off and do that thing that I've heard vampires do with their tongues, not that I would know of course because I'm so _innocent_."

"Well it is our honeymoon, and vampires are utterly shameless…."

Bonnie giggled again and allowed herself to be swept back into her wife's arms and thoroughly kissed, then carried ostentatiously across the threshold of the beach hut. Candles burned on almost every surface of the little bedroom and the bed itself had been strewn with rose petals.

"You had the girls fly all the way out here and set this up?" she asked quizzically, breaking character for a minute.

"Yeah well, what's the point in having minions if I'm not gonna make extravagant demands of them?" Marceline replied. "Besides, they were bored and like the idea of helping. Matilda especially, she's very invested in matrimonial harmony."

Any other time Marceline would have pressed more to discover what caused her wife's cheeks to flare with a blush when she said that, but she had actually gone to a lot of effort to set up their second honeymoon and she was quite eager to find out how 'innocent and virginal' Bonnie could be so she let it go, just that one time.

Much later when most of the candles had burned out and they lay tangled naked and satisfied together in rose scented sheets Bonnie rested her head against her wife's hip and sighed deeply in contentment.

"Do you ever wonder if maybe life's just that bit too perfect?" she asked quietly, running her fingertips along the cool length of Marcy's inner thigh and watching in languid fascination as the other woman quivered at her touch. "Like, maybe something awful is just around the corner? Because yes I know there's some small crisis or other most every week but we usually get it all sorted out in a day or two, and then it's back to just being really happy and enjoying our lives together."

"You're borrowing trouble, babe." Marcy told her, sliding her hand down to meet Bonnie's and winding their fingers together. "No point in worrying if things will change in the future; of course they will. Everything changes, eventually. But for right now we're happy and that's what matters, right?"

"Guess you're right. I am happy. I couldn't imagine being without you, I'm so glad you're my wife."

They kissed tenderly in the low light of the last sputtering candles as the sea rose and fell softly against the sand outside their window. This was the kind of honeymoon they should have enjoyed, Marcy reflected. Just being together, being in love. She hoped they could do this again, maybe in another ten years. They could make it a ten-yearly tradition. She highly doubted Bonnie would mind.

…...

"Can't sleep, Pup?"

His grandfather's voice made Jake jump and he straightened up guiltily from where he'd been raiding the refrigerator. Hunson was smiling at him from the doorway of his kitchen though, he didn't seem at all angry to find his eldest grandson out of bed and making himself an incredibly large sandwich in the middle of the night.

"Just hungry." Jake replied. "Is it ok if I get a snack?"

"Of course it is, Jake. Why do you think I'm in the kitchen myself?" Hunson replied with a grin. "Grab another few slices of bread and we'll put together something really worthy of being called a sandwich, how does that sound?"

Jake beamed back at him and grabbed another plate, rummaging back through the fridge and then going to the pantry. Together they constructed sandwiches so tall that Hunson had to dig out a couple of kebab skewers to hold them together. They sat at the table eating together and sharing conspiratorial grins around their bites.

"You know, I never really got to hang out with your Mom like this when she was a kid." Hunson told him nostalgically. "What with the war and all, we didn't really meet again until she was in her teens and by then she didn't want some uncool demon Dad cramping her style. I'm glad we get to hang out like this, Pup."

Jake smiled around his mouthful but his grandfather could tell he was curious and he was fully prepared for follow up questions once Jake had finished chewing.

"What happened to my grandmother?" Jake asked him quietly. Hunson blinked, surprised. That hadn't been what he'd expected at all.

"Well, she was a human and I'm sorry to say she died in the war." he replied carefully.

"Do you think she'd have liked me?" Jake asked, gazing up at him with innocent eyes. Hunson smiled gently, unwilling to dwell in sorrow when he was having such a nice time with his family. He missed her terribly but he wasn't about to make Jake sad by going into too much detail about it.

"I'm sure she'd have loved all three of you, Pup. She was a very loving woman."

"How did you meet?"

Hunson floundered for a second, unsure how much of the old demon lore his grandson even knew. He resolved to simply gloss over the more awkward and shadier parts, it wasn't like 'antichrist' was a word that would mean anything to Jake anyway.

"Well, you know how I'm the Lord of the Nightosphere?" he asked gently. Jake nodded. "And I wanted your Mom to take over but she didn't want to. I have been ruling the Nightosphere for a very long time. See my pendant?"

He pulled the heavy old chain out from under his shirt and Jake nodded again, peering at it curiously though he'd seen it plenty of times.

"This pendant," Hunson told him, "means I can't die and I can't be killed. As long as I wear it I am what the humans used to call the Prince of Darkness, Lord of the Flies, the Morning Star. Put simply, it means I rule here."

"Like Mama's crown." Jake nodded.

"Sort of. But I have been using this pendant for a much longer time, and part of creating the pendant meant that I was obliged to also try to create something called the 'antichrist'. We'd been trying to expand our territory into the grasslands for as long as there had been humans and the antichrist was going to be a half-human half-demon of great strength who would rule above."

"Oh, like Mom!" Jake added. Hunson nodded.

"Exactly. And so I went up to the human world to find a human lady to create an antichrist with. And I met your grandmother, and fell in love with her, and we had your Mom."

"What was she like?" Jake asked with huge fascinated eyes. Hunson smiled, halfway lost in ancient memory.

"She was the kindest person I'd ever met! She was… so different to the demons I'd known, so wonderfully human. It was a shock, to discover that there was any creature in existence that didn't know my name, didn't bow in deference when I walked by. And she could dance like nothing I'd ever seen before! We met at a disco and I asked her to dance with me, she was the most beautiful human I'd ever laid eyes on. Of course she laughed in my face and she laughed at my terrible dancing but I didn't care one bit. She could have laughed at me all night if it meant she'd dance with me."

"You must miss her." Jake said quietly after a moment. Hunson sighed and smiled a little bitter-sweetly.

"Yes and no. I often think that the best bits of your grandmother live on in your Mom. And I doubt she'd have enjoyed the world the way it is now. Besides, I always knew that being human meant she would one day have to leave. But death is not the end that so many people seem to think it is. I'll see her again."

"In the dead world?"

"Perhaps, one day. I don't think your Mom ever really understood that the reason I wanted her to take over down here was so I could grow old and eventually pass on. The pendant keeps me frozen in time, in the same way your Mom's vampirism freezes her. I used my demon magic to create it and in doing so my immortality is now tied to the pendant. If I take it of I will age like anyone else. I don't miss being immortal, I've lived long enough. But there are a lot of different things that can happen after someone dies and we don't know why they happen to some and not to others. Perhaps I'll go to the dead world. Perhaps I'll become a ghost or spirit, be reborn, or go somewhere else. There's no way to know for sure but I hope to one day find out." Hunson finished with a small smile, ruffling Jake's fur gently when he saw that his grandson was looking a little uneasy. "Don't worry, Pup. I'm not planning on dying any time soon. But there are a lot of worse things than passing on, death is nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm glad you're not gonna die soon though, Granddaddy." Jake replied with an answering smile. "You're way too fun to die."

Hunson smiled in reply but tilted his head to one side and regarded his eldest grandson thoughtfully.

"Is something bothering you, Pup? All these questions and awake in the night, you're normally such a good sleeper. Is something on your mind?" he asked gently.

Jake's smile faded and he avoided his grandfather's questioning gaze. It was dangerous territory, Hunson knew; he was no expert at talking to teenagers as his own formerly strained relationship with his daughter had proved. But he wanted Jake to feel that if there was something wrong or something he wanted to talk about that Hunson was there for him, despite their differences. He hadn't been there for Marceline and Hunson hadn't ever stopped feeling guilty about that once he'd realised how deeply it had affected her. He was going to support his grandchildren no matter what.

"I just... I dunno, Granddaddy. Did Mom ever tell you about my birth father?" Jake finally muttered in reply. Hunson scanned his considerable memory for a moment.

"Yes, Joshua the Dog. I never met him but he was quite the hero by all accounts. So what's bothering you about that, Pup?"

"Everyone keeps telling me how much of a hero he was and how I look just like him and stuff but I don't think he was a very nice guy, not really. I mean, he tried to sacrifice me and Finn to the Lich. That's not something a hero would do, why would be do that? Was he evil or just ill in his head? And if he got ill in his head then will I too one day? If I ever have kids am I gonna go crazy and try to hurt them? What if the Lich comes back and I'm somehow bound to him because of something Joshua did? I wouldn't even know, nobody would. Mom wasn't even there when the Lich took me, what if he did something to me? And where does my stretchy power come from? That's not a normal Dog power, what if it's a result of the Lich messing with me? I just, I have a lot of questions I wish I could ask Joshua, Granddaddy. I don't know where I come from and I don't think I'm just another Dog. I'm apparently a future hero but I don't feel like a hero too much, I feel like an orchestra geek who really likes cooking. I'm trying to be a hero and I want to be a hero but I don't always _feel_ like a hero, do you understand? Like, do heroes feel different all the time? Do they?"

Once Jake started talking it seemed like it was difficult for him to stop. He was tripping over his words, it all came out in a long garbled rush and by the end of his speech he was staring down at the table, ashamed of himself.

"Jake, you're a wonderful boy and you're as good a hero as any I've ever seen. And trust me, son. I've seen an awful lot of heroes in my time. I can't say I ever met you birth father but I can tell you this; there's no trace of the Lich in you. I would know, I can feel his power like a slimy touch against my mind. And there's no slime on you. But I can tell you that you have some demon blood, you're as much demon as your mother is. So either Joshua wasn't truly your father or his wife wasn't truly your mother because you're a half demon just like your Mom. It's in your blood, it always has been. Your powers almost certainly come from there; nothing the Lich could have done to you would have produced such an effect." Hunson replied eventually.

"But how do you know?" Jake asked, looking up in shock. Oh, right. That was a difficult question to answer and Hunson thought about just brushing it off with 'I just do'. But that was how he'd answered Marceline's questions when she was young and clearly that wasn't the best way to build a relationship with a curious teen. So instead he resolved to tell the truth, no matter that it didn't reflect terribly well on him and if Bonnibel ever found out could result in him being banned form the grasslands forever.

 _"_ Well, you have to promise me you won't tell your Mama. Promise?"

Jake nodded.

"I promise, Granddaddy. Did you do something Evil?"

"Just a little. It's part of the job description, you know. Well when you were just a baby and your mothers were getting married I came up to the grasslands to attend their wedding. And when they were busy having a beautifully romantic first dance together and your little elephant nanny was busy comforting your screaming baby brother I had you sitting on my lap. And you stretched your arms up to wave at your Mama as she went past and I was curious how you'd done it. Normally puppies can't do that, you're right. But I'd seen demon kids who could. So very carefully, making sure nobody was watching, I had just the tiniest taste of your soul, to see if you had any demon in you. And I was right, you did. I put it back straight away, Jake! I never wanted to harm you, I just wanted to be certain where you'd come from." Hunson added hurriedly.

"You ate my soul?"

"Only for a second! Because I was worried about you, because I love you. Like I said, I put it right back afterwards and you were perfectly fine. I don't think you actually noticed."

"Cool." Jake grinned. Well that wasn't the reaction Hunson had been expecting.

"You think it's cool that your Evil demon king grandfather ate your soul for a while at your parents' wedding?" he asked, confused.

"Yeah! How many people still walking around can say they've had their souls eaten by the Lord of Evil?" Jake replied with a smile.

"Well... your Mom, one time." Hunson shrugged. "But I don't think she was as happy about it as you seem to be."

"Mom's weird about her soul, I think it's a vampire thing." Jake shrugged. "But what about the other stuff? What if I go Evil like my birth father?"

"Well, being Evil isn't really all that bad you know. It's just a different kind of alignment. And there are different breeds of Evil. For example, I am Lawful Evil. I will only do Evil things within my own realm, within the laws that govern that realm. So long as I stay inside those rules I can have a perfectly workable alliance with someone who is Good, such as your Mama."

"Mama's Neutral." Jake grinned. "She doesn't want her subjects to know because she thinks they'll stop trusting her. That's why her banner colour is pink, everyone thinks that means she must be Good. But she's just as Neutral as Mom, just more lawful."

If he was the kind of demon to store away knowledge about people for future blackmail Hunson might have paid extra special attention to that particular nugget of information. But he just smiled to Jake and ruffled the fur on his head.

"My lips are sealed, Pup. So long as you don't tell her I tasted your soul. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Are you feeling a bit better?"

"Yeah, I guess." Jake shrugged. "I still don't know what to think about my birth father but I feel a bit better about me. I'm gonna be a hero, Granddaddy. But because I want to be, not because my crazy father said I had to be. Besides, if I go crazy Mama will science me better. There's nothing Mama can't fix."

"Very true, Bonnibel is scarily talented in fixing things with science. Off to bed with you now, Jacob. It's very late and it'll be my neck on the line if you're tired when your mothers come for you tomorrow."

Jake stood up from the table and squeezed his grandfather into a brief hug before he skipped out of the kitchen, leaving Hunson to stare after him contemplatively. Sure, they might not be blood. But Jake seemed to have grown into a perfect blend of Marceline and Bonnibel in almost every way. Hunson was glad for them, it was plain to see that they both adored being parents, perhaps more than he'd ever really be able to relate to. With a thoughtful shrug Hunson took their empty plates to the sink before he followed Jake back down the hall and back to his own bedroom.


	15. Chapter 15

**This chapter is almost 100% Jake, so I hope that's ok with everyone? I just really like writing older Jake, he's such a sweetheart. Also I know that in the series by this point the boys are living in the treehouse together and appear to have already been adventuring with real weaponry for a while, but I had this idea that with slightly more responsible parents around there would be no need for Jake to basically be a stand in father figure to Finn and they probably wouldn't be playing with edged weapons at such a young age. I just don't think Joshua seemed like he was a very responsible father. And usually writing Jake and his viola means I get a little excuse to put some classical music references in there, because I just adore classical music.**

 **Content Warning: fluffiness, cuteness, shadow demons, references to eating humans. That is all.**

* * *

It was cloudy enough that morning for their lesson to take place outside without the addition of a sun hat or UV blocking lotion, which was a nice change for Marceline. It was still early, before lunch even, and Jake was yawning and mooching around like usual. He still wasn't really happy with being up so early on a Saturday no matter what the reason.

"Nah, leave those. I've got a surprise for you, Jake." she told him with a grin when he reached for the wooden practice swords. "Something a bit cooler than the wooden ones."

He stared around at her, sleepiness forgotten in his sudden excitement.

"A real sword? Really, Mom? You think I'm good enough for a proper sword now?"

"I'm not sure. What do you think, Slice?"

She turned to Sir Slicer, Jake's combat tutor, who cast a critical eye over the boy. Marceline would have been happier with one of the Honour Guard training him but none of them had really had the time to commit to it weekly, despite regularly coming to help out and spar with the kids when they got the chance.

"He's got a good arm, but without armour he's just not _tschk tschk._ " the knight replied, frowning.

"Come on man, we've been through this. He doesn't need armour."

"But how will anyone know how _tschk tschk_ he is?" Sir Slicer sighed at the continued cold stare the Vampire Queen levelled at him. He didn't understand why she wanted him to teach her boy to fight basically naked but he was well paid for it and it did his reputation no harm at all to work for her. "Fine. Despite his dorky lack of armour, yes I think the boy is just _tschk tschk_ enough to handle a real blade."

Jake cheered and wagged his tail and Marceline grinned at his enthusiasm, nodding to the knight who reached around a large shrub and pulled out a slim black leather case that had been hidden there.

"Ok, Slice. I can't believe I'm actually asking you this but, would you please fetch my armour?" Marceline asked with an eye roll. The knight's eyes nearly bugged out of his face.

"But- but- Milady! You are already so naturally _tschk tschk!_ With armour as well..." he trailed off, looking like he might faint.

"It's in the armoury, I had it specially made. Please go fetch it." she replied evenly. Sir Slicer bowed deeply and hurried back into the palace, still looking like he'd had the shock of his life. Jake came over to inspect the long black case at Marceline's feet excitedly, sniffing all over it and grinning up at her. She flicked it open and he drew an impressed breath in sharply.

"This was your Daddy's sword." Marceline told him gently. "He fought so bravely with this; he was an unofficial member of the Honour Guard and the best adventurer of his age. And your Uncle Olgar saved this for you, after your Dad died. He killed my evil cousin Ralquinn the Demon with this sword. I couldn't be prouder of him or of you as his heir. Take it; it's your birth right. I can't touch it." she added.

He looked up, shocked.

"Why not? Oh, because it's made from demon blood, Mom?"

"Yeah. See this scar right here?" she indicated the small twisting knot at the base of her throat that had never properly healed no matter how much latent vampire magic she'd pushed into it over the years. "Your Daddy gave me that scar with this very sword. It burned me, went all the way into my skin and never healed. That's how good a demon blood sword is. And this one's yours."

Jake picked it up reverently.

"It's so light." he breathed, "Like it's made from air. And so well balanced. I could kill _anything_ with this."

"Only Evil things, son. Yeah? You know your Mama and I are still a little worried about you wanting to get into the hero business. This sword isn't a toy and it's not something to wield lightly."

He nodded gravely, eyes still scanning the length of the red blade.

Without warning the air was filled with an angry buzzing, like a million flying insects had swarmed around them. From nowhere a dark shape materialised in the air, hissing. _Oh great, just what we needed._

"GIVE IT BACK! GIVE IT BACK TO ME, JOSHU- aahh! Lady Abadeer! Good day, Milady! Oh, um, ha, a sword lesson with, um, Joshua? Ha, yes, and there's my blood, um-"

"Hello Kee-Oth. This is Jacob, my son. And he's learning to handle a demon blood sword." Marcy explained wearily. The shadow demon blinked at her in confusion.

"Your... son? Yes, yes of course. I see the family resemblance. Ha ha, yes, but doesn't he just look like Hunson!" Kee-Oth stuttered out in what he probably thought was a jovial tone.

"I'm adopted." Jake stated flatly.

"Oh. Right. Yes. I... did hear a rumour, I think. Of course. Well, this is awkward."

Jake brightened and suddenly grinned at the demon with a glint in his eye that Marceline suspected looked very much like her own when she'd had an impish idea. He caught her gaze and his grin widened slightly; oh yes he was definitely plotting something.

"So you're like, some kinda important demon, right?" Jake asked, turning a suddenly innocent face on Kee-Oth. "I mean, you must be, to be allowed to use Granddaddy's first name, right?"

"I...um." the shadow demon floundered.

"So, like, how come you didn't come to my birthdays? Mom always invites all the important nobles. I'm the crown prince."

Jake let his features fall into lines of very well acted disappointment. Nobody could act like a shape shifter.

"Oh. Well. Um. Responsibilities in the Nightosphere, you know how it is." Kee-Oth replied uncomfortably.

"Huh. Weird. Granddaddy always makes my birthdays, and he's gotta do a ton of responsible demon stuff. I just... demons always give the best presents. And I've never received a gift from a shadow demon."

Jake was using puppy-dog eyes now and nobody could use puppy-dog eyes like a Dog. Jake was so naturally talented in manoeuvring around people that Marceline swelled with pride, seeing exactly what her cunning son was angling towards. He was sly, subtle, using his opponent's pride against him for political gain. He was every inch Bonnie's son, she'd be so proud of him.

"I... well... did you know, Prince Jacob, that the sword you're holding is made from my own blood?" Kee-Oth managed to splutter out. "Joshua the Hero, he was a mighty hero! And he was your birth father? Yes, I thought so. He wrestled me down and took my blood to make that very sword. And I came here today because I felt the sword in use again. And I… I wanted to give it to you, um, as a present. With my apologies for missing your birthdays, because as you rightly pointed out you are the crown prince and the eldest grandchild of my master and it is unforgivable that I should not honour the anniversary of your coming into the world. Take the sword, Prince Jacob. It is yours."

"Really?" Jake breathed with an expression of beautifully faked innocent joy.

"Really." the demon replied with a thoroughly relieved smile.

Jake beamed at him and hefted the sword. He admired the swish as he swirled it through the air for a minute before he looked back up to the shadow demon.

"Thanks, Kee-Oth!"

"My pleasure, Prince Jacob. And do remember to send my regards to your grandfather. Well, I'd better be off. Lady Abadeer, Prince Jacob." he bowed to them both in turn before he disappeared into the air with a pop.

"Masterfully done, Jakey!" Marceline grinned at him.

"I learned from the best." he told her shyly.

"Y'know," Marcy continued, staring thoughtfully into space, "I've never seen a shadow demon sweat nervously before. That was some cunning manipulations; you get extra points for name dropping your Granddaddy. You're so much like your Mama, it's a little scary. And awesome."

He grinned widely and bowed, laughing. A second later Sir Slicer was puffing back towards them across the lawn with his arms stretched around a suit of bright red enamelled plate mail and a full helm complete with visor and plumage.

"Alright! Help me into this tin can and you can batter me with your new sword as much as you like." Marceline told him happily.

...

"Who is that?" Jake breathed, looking up from his history book and staring at the stranger in the courtyard through the library windows.

"That? I expect that's the new ambassador." Aunt Maureen replied sniffily. "Those Rainicorns are still trying to ingratiate themselves with the princess, I see."

"Mama's a queen now, Aunt Maureen." Jake replied, embarrassed. His great aunt still insisted on coming to the palace every couple of weeks to teach him about Dog culture and history, despite that she'd begun to lose her memory in the last few years and he already knew more about it than she did courtesy of the huge library his Mama kept stocked with a copy of almost every book ever written.

Jake tried hard to focus on his lesson but his attention wandered. The young Rainicorn ambassador had the prettiest colours of anyone he'd ever seen and the length of her smooth horn glimmered beautifully in the sunlight. He sighed and stared out of the window, mesmerised by the way her long sinuous body coiled through the air. She possessed more grace and beauty than he'd ever seen in another creature, certainly more than he'd ever seen in any Dog. Jake wondered if her mane felt as silky as it looked, it was like spun gold glinting in the sunshine.

"Aunt Maureen? May I be excused?" he asked politely after a few more minutes.

"What's wrong, Jacob, dear? Are you ill?" she asked in a voice full of matronly concern.

"Oh, yeah. Ill. I, uh, I've got a headache. I was thinking perhaps some fresh air might help and I can think more about the Rainicorn Dog wars. In the rose garden. You know, to really get to the bottom of it." he replied uncomfortably.

"Of course, run along now. I'll see you in a couple of weeks."

Jake raced from the library and out into the sunshine almost before Maureen had finished speaking,

"Oh, and this is my eldest son, Jacob." his Mama said, looking around as he skidded to a halt by her side.

"HeyMamaI'mdoneiwthmylessons!" he panted with what he hoped was a charming smile.

The Rainicorn was somehow even lovelier close up and Jake felt his resolve weaken as he stared up at her.

"Say hello, Jake." his Mama added, frowning at him a little. "My apologies, Lady Rainicorn. He's usually far less shy than this."

"Hello." Jake said quietly. Now he was up close with her he suddenly didn't know what to talk about.

She opened her beautiful mouth and said- something. Jake's brow furrowed. She said something else, quietly to his mother, and Bonnie nodded.

"Lady's English is fine to understand what you're saying, but she speaks Korean as a preference." she explained to him. "She says you must be the handsome prince she's heard so much about."

Jake's blush could have lit up the sky, but he smiled shyly all the same.

"Lady will be around at the palace a lot, Jake. She's going to be the new ambassador. I know I've already asked you to take on a few royal duties but now that you're older I'd appreciate if you'd show her around some and make the effort to learn a little Korean. In the meantime I've borrowed Emerald's translator for Lady and she has graciously agreed to wear it. If the two of you will excuse me, I need to attend to my paperwork."

His mother bowed and retreated gracefully with a small smile on her lips. Lady fumbled with the translator for a minute and then it crackled to life.

"It is good to meet you, Prince Jacob. Your mother did not lie about your accomplishments, I see. She tells me you are quite the talented musician?"

"Umm. I play viola in the local orchestra." he squeaked, still beet red and suddenly unable to look her in the eye.

"I have heard that stringed instruments without frets are the most difficult to master. You must be very gifted to be good enough to play in the orchestra."

"Thanks." he replied, still squeakily.

They toured the grounds, examining the rose garden, the courtyards, the hidden meditation gardens and the exterior viewing garden built around his Mom's sunroom. Lady peppered him with compliments the whole time and Jake blushed awkwardly and tried to stammer out a denial of any kind of talent or skill.

"Your father was friends with my Aunt, I think. You know her, Emerald Rainicorn? She told me a lot about him, she said he was the finest Dog she'd ever met." Lady Rainicorn told him quietly as they walked.

"Err. He went crazy and tried to sacrifice me and my little brother to the Lich, but before that I'm sure he was a good guy?" Jake hazarded. He'd grown up hearing all about how wonderful his Dad had been, and then Finn had decided he wanted to know the whole story about how Mom had found him and actually it turned out that Jake's Dad was a raving lunatic who'd tried to kill him. Jake didn't know how to feel about that anymore, he was still processing the long conversation he'd had with his grandfather the week before.

"You must be very brave to live with such a burden." Lady replied calmly.

They'd reached the doors back into the palace and she bowed low to him, almost grazing the ground as she swirled down deferentially.

"I have enjoyed your company very much today, Prince Jake. Perhaps we could be friends, meet again?"

"Umm. Ok. Yeah." Still squeaky, dammit why was his voice so weird today?

"Perhaps we can go on a picnic together. You can bring you viola."

Ah, right. Those kind of friends. The kind that went on cosy picnics together, just to two of them.

"Ok." he squeaked, blushing beneath his fur and trying to smile in a way that was charming and didn't twist his face into weird tense shapes.

She giggled and perhaps some of what she'd said had stuck after all, because Jake was suddenly feeling brave and a little gallant. He swept onto one knee and seized her hand, pressing a chaste kiss against it.

"I look forward to your company, Milady." he said with a wide smile, before she smiled in reply and swirled away into the air.

…..

"I've never eaten kimchi made by a Dog before." Lady told him with a demure smile. "It's very good, you are such a talented chef."

Jake felt his chest puff out with pride. Peppermint Butler had helped him with the recipe and when they were done the little Candy butler had declared it as good a bowl of kimchi as he'd ever tasted. They'd made roasted barley tea and songpyeon too, sweet Korean rice cakes shaped like little half-moons. Lady had told him it was the finest picnic she'd ever seen.

"I brought my viola." Jake admitted, still a little shy around the beautiful Rainicorn. "I've been practicing, thought you might like to hear it."

She smiled encouragingly and Jake stood, bowing to her formally before he placed the instrument under his chin and closed his eyes, the better to feel the music flow through his paws. Before he played Jake always experienced a stab of nostalgic memory for that day when he'd just been a little pupster and he'd first seen his Mom play. He'd sat in her lap at the piano watching mesmerised as her hands flew across the keys without any obvious effort on her part and Jake had been filled with wonder and an aching urge to play music that effortlessly, too. Of course she had a thousand years' practice on him but he wasn't about to let that stop him. The viola had been his birth father's chosen instrument too and however complicated his feelings about Joshua were Jake had clearly inherited his musical talent.

Massenet's Meditations From Thais began to flow through his paws and despite being more usually accompanied with a piano Jake was pleased with how it turned out on a solo viola. The lingering higher notes seemed to blend in with the summer haze of the meadow they'd picked as a picnic spot and when he opened his eyes again it was to find that Lady was watching him transfixed with a soft smile on her face. She was still wearing the small flower crown he'd made her around her horn and in the golden sun surrounded by the wildflowers and butterflies she looked to him like some ancient forest spirit come to life. Jake felt his knees go weak again, just a little.

"You are so very handsome." she murmured, swirling a little closer and looking into his face. "And talented. And a very kind person. I feel very lucky to have met you, Jake."

"Er, thanks." Jake mumbled in reply, feeling his face heat up with proud embarrassment. "I like you too. Um, you look really lovely today."

"I'd like to see you again."

"I'd like that too."

And she was swirling closer, again, closer than ever and Jake's heart was beginning to stutter nervously because her eyes had fluttered closed and she was tilting her head a little-

"JAAAAAAKE! YO!"

Finn, on The Morrow, swooping by with the worst timing of anyone ever to exist in any universe, Jake was sure of it.

"HEY! HEY JAKE! BRO LOOK I TAUGHT HIM TO DO A LOOP DE LOOP!"

His little brother landed on the edge of the picnic blanket and grinned up at them both, windswept blonde mane sticking up in every direction.

"You guys having a picnic? Cool, can I have some barley tea? I'm way thirsty from flying around in the sun." Finn added, grabbing the flask.

"And this is my little brother, Prince Finn. Finn, this is Lady Rainicorn, the new Rainicorn ambassador. Mama asked me to show her around and stuff." Jake replied, keeping the sigh out of his voice with an effort. He loved his little brother and they were very close, Finn didn't have any idea he'd just interrupted what could have been a beautiful moment.

"Hey. Don't like, Rainicorns and Dogs hate each other?" Finn asked around a mouthful of songpyeon.

"We had a war but it is over and now we are building bridges. There are Dogs I know and respect very much, Dogs I would love to get much closer to." Lady replied carefully. Jake tried to catch her eye to see if she meant what it sounded like she meant but she wasn't a diplomat for no reason and just continued smiling benevolently at Finn.

"Cool. I'm glad. Jake's an awesome guy, did he play his viola for you yet?" Finn asked, looking around. "Sometimes we duet, I play the flute. But not really well, Mom's always hanging out with Jake in the music room and I just gate crash from time to time. But you should come see his orchestra some time, he's the star. Do you play anything?"

"The Colourscope, but it has no equivalent in this dimension." Lady replied with a small smile. "One time we will go to the Crystal Dimension and I can show you. But the best I can demonstrate here is simply to change the colours of things. You are very close to your parents, Finn?"

He nodded, then looked down at himself with a delighted gasp. Lady had shot a bolt of pure energy at him and his skin was now a bright fuchsia just like Mama's. When he moved his head something unexpected caught his eye and he grabbed a handful of his hair, holding it up to his face to examine it closer. It was midnight black, like his Mom's.

" _Dude,"_ Finn breathed. "Is this permanent? I gotta go show Mom and Mama! Awesome, thanks Lady!" he yelled, leaping up and clambering back onto The Morrow's back again. "The palace, boy! Quick as you can!"

The great eagle bunched his muscles and shot up into the air, swooping away so fast that he was out of sight in seconds. Jake watched him go with an amused smile on his face.

"Is it permanent?" he asked Lady, still staring off in the direction his little brother had flown away in.

"No, it will wear off in an hour or so. I just thought it might amuse him."

Jake turned to say something more to her, praise her thoughtfulness or something, but she was closer again and getting closer still and the words died on his lips. Lady smiled at him warmly and swirled up close, resting the tip of her velvety muzzle against his cheek.

"I like you, Jake." she murmured. Instead of replying he turned his head just a little, and kissed her. Lady made him feel brave, Jake decided. And a little like he could fly, too.

...

"Jake has a crush."

"Mhm."

"On a Rainicorn. On the new ambassador, actually."

"I know, I introduced them."

"And you're not at all concerned about this?"

"...Why would I be?"

"Well she's a Rainicorn and he's a Dog, there's a lot of history and bad blood between their species. And I'll be honest, Bon. I don't completely trust Rainicorns. I mean they used to eat humans. What if she hurts Finn? Sure they say they don't eat people anymore but how can we be completely certain? Are we willing to gamble our youngest son's safety on it? Why are you giving me that look you only give me when I say something really intensely stupid?"

Bonnie was staring at her over the top of her book, turned to face her in the bed so Marceline could enjoy the full radiance of her unimpressed expression.

"You're a vampire." she prompted after a long moment of awkward silence.

"Yes?" Marceline asked, perplexed. "And you're a Candy golem. And? What has that got to do with whether this new Rainicorn ambassador is going to eat Finn? You're still giving me that look!"

"You. Are. A. _Vampire_." Bonnie repeated slowly. Marceline stared at her blankly. "For Glob's sake, Marcy! Your species has eaten people for literally _thousands of years!_ You're so well known for eating people that various types of blood drinking animal are named after your _blood drinking species!_ And you're worried that Lady is the one who, historically, poses a threat to Finn?"

Marceline flushed, annoyed with herself that she hadn't caught on sooner.

"But I know I'm not going to eat Finn! I took a vow! I kill vampires that drink blood! How do we know that-"

"Lady is Emerald's niece." Bonnie cut her off, as though that had anything to do with it. "She's an accomplished diplomat and a fine born noble too. She's graciously agreed to act as ambassador when she could be enjoying a life of idle luxury in the Crystal Dimension, very much like the one you have here."

"Hey, I do loads of work! I helped you in the lab today, didn't I?"

"You broke the fume cupboard!"

"Your science was unstable, I just moved it to where you told me to! It isn't my fault your science exploded everywhere!"

"This has nothing to do with Jake." Bonnie said with her eyes flashing dangerously. Marcy didn't want to end the day with an argument so she swallowed her pride and backed down gracefully.

"I know. Sorry, love. I just... worry about them."

"I know. You're an overbearing mother."

She stuck her tongue out and flicked the lights off, snuggling down next to her wife with a sigh. Yeah, she was an overbearing mother. But she hadn't been prepared for Jake to grow up so quickly, what if he got a girlfriend? What then? He was going to grow up and get married and leave home and it was all so much faster than she'd been prepared for. Marceline closed her eyes and consoled herself with the knowledge that whatever happened in the future she'd always have the comforting warmth of her beloved wife in her arms. Always.


	16. Chapter 16

**I'm hearing a request for moar teenage Phoebe, so have a little extra Firefly at the start! This scene is especially for anyone who had a hormonal temper tantrum and yelled at someone who loved them without thinking about it first. I know I did it when I was younger, and I wish I could take back those hurtful words. I think most people have at some point. And this chapter and the next are setting up a little bit of plot, so I hope you enjoy!**

 **Content Warning: angry teenage tantrums, ransoms, Lumpy Space Princess, Beatles lyrics.**

* * *

" _Please_ , Mama, I'll be careful!"

"Phoebe no, there's too much water and you're still too small and you might get hurt."

"But if I get water on my skin Garm can warm me up again and I'll wear gloves and waterproofs and everything!"

Bonnie pinched the bridge of her nose for a second and tried not to look at the big innocent eyes of the fire wolf her daughter was hugging imploringly. Ever sine she'd been a baby Phoebe had followed her around trying to do all the things Bonnie did, in much the same way that Finn mimicked Marceline. But the rose garden was not a safe place for a fire elemental, no matter if she wore waterproofs or not. Sometimes in her nightmares Bonnie still heard her daughter's screams of agony as she slid under the water that day by the river. More than once Marcy had woken in the night to find her wife out of bed and standing quietly at the doorway of Phoebe's room, making sure she was sleeping soundly and completely safe.

"No, Firefly. You're just too little. Soon, I promise, when you're big enough to lift the watering can easily. And we'll tend the garden together. But please, honey, you're too small right now."

Usually that would have been enough; in the past telling Phoebe that she could do something when she'd grown more would have left her nodding her agreement and accepting her mother's decision. But teenage hormones were raging through Phoebe every bit as much as her brothers. Her face twisted with rage and she sucked in a huge breath. Bonnie braced herself.

"I HATE YOU AND I WISH I'D NEVER LEFT MY LAMP AND I HOPE YOU HAVE A MIGRAINE AND DIE AND I HOPE EVERYONE FINDS OUT WHAT A HORRIBLE MOTHER YOU ARE!"

Then Phoebe was away, running from the library with an angry sob forcing its way past her trembling lips. Bonnie stared at her daughter's retreating back and reached up to touch her own cheek, where the first of her shocked tears was beginning to roll down the shallow scars the Grimmalk's claws had left eleven years earlier. She'd known it was coming but she hadn't expected Phoebe's words to cut her so deeply.

It was best to let Phoebe have her space, that's what Bonnie told herself. So she went to her study and got on with her paperwork in a numb state of shock, with her daughter's angry words echoing in her head the whole time. Yes, she'd left Phoebe in that lamp as a baby. And she probably did deserve to have everyone find out. At least it seemed likely her daughter would get part of her wish anyway, Bonnie could feel the growing pulse behind her eyes that meant another tension headache was building. She'd been getting them more and more frequently; perhaps she'd wake Stefan and see if he could help ease some of her pain. But then she'd just be avoiding it and it wasn't fair to make the big vampire suffer just because she was a terrible mother. No, too many people had suffered because of her already. The words of her papers were beginning to blur and run together, she rested her head on her desk with a quiet groan.

There was a knock at the door and without even lifting her head Bonnie called for them to enter, knowing instinctively that it was Peppermint Butler and that he had probably heard every word Phoebe had screamed at her.

"Your Majesty, I brought you some tea and a sandwich. You missed lunch, you've been in here for hours." the little candy butler told her soothingly. "Your daughter has something she'd like to say to you."

She did look up at that. Phoebe was standing behind Peppermint with her eyes downcast and shame written large on her face. She scuffed one shoe off the ground awkwardly.

"I'm sorry, Mama." Phoebe mumbled, still looking at the ground. "I know you only ever try to keep me safe. I just feel like I'm big enough to do more stuff now. I didn't mean to get really angry like that. Sometimes it feels like there's an angry kind of fire in me and I can't control it."

"Come here, Firefly." Bonnie murmured, and Phoebe rushed across the room and into her mother's outstretched arms. Peppermint Butler bowed to them with a small smile and placed the tea and sandwich on the desk before leaving quietly and shutting the door behind himself.

…

"MOOOOOOM JAKE GOT SUCKED INTO A TREE WITCH'S BUTT AND HE NEEDS YOUR HELP OR HE'S GONNA GET REVERSE DIGESTED!"

Distantly, behind the sudden stab of panic surging like a riptide through her chest, Marceline wondered if other parents had to worry about their kids getting reverse digested. Probably not, she decided, probably she was just really unlucky.

Finn and Phoebe skidded to a halt in the doorway of the music room, breathless and panicked.

"What the hell have you three been up to? Why would you even be hanging out anywhere near a tree witch?" she demanded, shock making it come out much more angrily than she'd intended. She slung the axe bass she'd been playing a moment before across her back and let Finn seize her arm and tow her towards the doorway.

"We were out heroing and this tree witch asked us if we were really real heroes and I told her we only help people in trouble and now Jake's in trouble and he's gonna be turned into poop and it's all my fault because I wouldn't give her my hair!" her son wailed in distress.

"I tried to give her my fire hair but she thought I was trying to burn her!" Phoebe added squeakily. Her flames were dancing in agitation and she was squeezing her hands together in exactly the same gesture of unconscious worry that Bonnie made when she was really stressed about something. Marceline was thankful for a moment that they'd come to her with this instead. She considered their options for a split second before she morphed into the giant she-wolf.

"Get on and hold tight to my fur." she growled to them, crouching low so they could obediently scramble onto her back. Luckily the axe was buried in her thick pelt; she didn't want to have to delay helping Jake because one of the others had cut themselves on it.

As soon as the kids had clambered up and had a firm grip on her fur she leaped away down the corridor to the main stairs. No time to walk like a chump; she flung herself from the fourth floor balcony and landed gracefully in the main entrance hall with all four paws bunched under her and already springing forwards the moment her feet touched the ground.

"Grab my parasol!" she growled as they raced past the doors. Finn leaned out and snagged the biggest purple sunshade from its hook on the wall, flinging it open above their heads with a long practiced flick a split second before they were out in the bright sunlight of the courtyard. They raced through the main gate and away towards the forest with Finn's waist length blonde mane and Phoebe's flickering blue flames streaming out behind them like a banner in the sudden gale caused by their speed.

"Where?" Marcy yelled up to them over the wind rushing past her shaded ears.

"The wild apple stand by Muscle Princess' place!" Phoebe yelled back.

With one enormous push of strength and magic Marceline jumped cleanly over the tangle of treacherous reeds and hidden boulders around the stream marking the candy forest's boundary. It was more difficult to fly when she was in most animal forms especially with the extra weight of two bony adolescents on her back so she needed to actually use her muscles to clear the wide obstacle. They landed flawlessly on the far bank and without missing a single step streaked off between the branches and trees, making for the apple stand much more quickly than either of the children could have run.

"MOM!" Jake yelled the moment he saw them erupt through the foliage on the edge of the clearing, cutting off the heavyset witch pinning him to the ground in mid rant.

"This is the terrifying mother you were trying to warn me about, little doggie? She's just a big dumb wolf! You lied to me, doggie, you said you were a prince!" the witch howled, laughing and petting Jake's head roughly. "Here, Queen Wolfie! Do you want a dog biscuit, huh? You gonna wag your tail for me?"

"Hawthorn, I should have known." Marceline growled angrily as Finn and Phoebe slid to the ground, more dishevelled than ever from their headlong rush from the palace. The tree witch blinked at her in confusion.

"Have we met?"

"You could say that."

She transformed back, so glad she'd opted to wear a figure hugging floor length black dress in the gothic style Matilda and Zoe favoured. She doubted she'd look half so intimidating in one of Bonnie's hand knitted pink sweaters.

"Marceline The Vampire Queen!" Hawthorn gasped in horror, shuffling backwards away from her and dragging Jake along too. They'd had run-ins in the past, Hawthorn hadn't come off better. The old witch was a small time crook and an associate of her psycho ex Ash, there was no love lost between them.

"The very same. Although it's Vampire-Candy Queen these days." Marceline replied calmly, still just a touch proud that she'd added that to her official title. "So how about you get up nice and slow off my firstborn and I don't chop you into firewood with this big sharp axe right here, hm?"

"He's your _son?_ " Hawthorn gasped, horrified. "But... how? You're undead! And he's a doggie!"

"I'm adopted!" Jake yelled angrily. "Why is that so hard for people to understand?"

"You know what? I don't care! You don't get your adopted little doggie back until I get some beautiful hair!" Hawthorn snarled. She scowled around at them defiantly and with a grunt Jake disappeared another couple of inches underneath her.

"MOM!" he cried in panic.

"Get off him now or I swear to Grod I will peel that bark right off your ugly face!"

"You wouldn't dare! I know all about you, Marceline! You've gone _soft_ , like that dumb talking candy you shacked up with! You're just her squishy grey marshmallow now-"

Hawthorn broke off with a whimper of fear as Marceline transformed again, this time into a huge hulking beast with a mouth full of white teeth as sharp as knives. The flames that erupted on her skin when she burst out from under the parasol's protection only served to make her look fiercer.

" _GIVE ME BACK MY SON HAWTHORN!"_

"Ok! Alright! Here, have him!"

The tree witch scrambled up and Jake crawled out from under her, rubbing his ribs and gasping.

"You ok, Pup?" his Mom asked gently, transforming back down to her usual form.

"Yeah, she just winded me. Please stop calling me Pup, Mom. I'm all grown up already!" Jake puffed, embarrassed.

"I will stop calling you Pup when you stop getting yourself sucked into witches' butts and having to send your brother and sister to fetch me to rescue you. You understand that being a hero doesn't mean going around starting fights with people, don't you, Jake?"

He began to reply huffily but a loud wail from behind them cut him off. They all turned to stare at Hawthorn.

"I just wanted to have beautiful hair!" she cried snottily. "I have a balding problem!"

"Well duh, you only have like, three hairs left on top." Phoebe piped up. "But you can't just go holding princes to ransom in your ass to force their brothers to shave their hair off for you! You could at least try to be beautiful on the inside."

"I know, I know!" Hawthorn replied morosely, still sniffing. "But I thought maybe if I had beautiful hair... I know nobody else will love me, I just wanted to learn to love myself."

She burst into noisy tears again and Marceline rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, kids. Leave her to it, she's a real piece of work." she muttered, sweeping all three of them into a brief hug before turning to leave.

"But _Mom_ ," Phoebe begged imploringly, "she's so sad! And she didn't really mean to hurt anyone. It's all Finn's fault for being so vain about his stupid girly hair anyway."

"Hey!" Finn added indignantly.

Phoebe was staring up at her with big innocent eyes, the kind of expression that spoke volumes about the wonderfully good person she knew her adoptive mother was really. Like she was the sort of person who rescued neglected babies from lamp prisons and didn't walk away from someone who was upset no matter who they'd tried to suck into their butt. Marceline sighed heavily.

"Jake, razor hands, please."

...

"What the living _stuff_? Marcy, what did you do to your hair?"

She came awake confused, opening her eyes to find her wife staring at her, horrified.

"M, morning. What?"

"Your hair! You've gone bald!" Bonnie gasped, staring at her from across the bed. Marceline blinked at her in confusion for a minute before the events of the previous afternoon came back to her. Oh right, that tree witch. Setting a good example for the kids. Oops, she'd mean to force her hair to regrow before Bonnie had seen. Yesterday she'd just shifted it to the appearance of her usual long mane and had intended to fix it before bed, before the shift disappeared when she went to sleep. She must have forgotten, damn her imperfect demon memory. Bonnie was still looking at her like she'd grown an extra head and she tried to smile reassuringly but from the look on her wife's face that had somehow made it worse.

"Um, do you like it? I thought I'd try something new."

"...You look like a freaky goblin." Bonnie whispered around her hands, horrified.

"Thank you, you're so kind."

Marceline closed her eyes again and focussed her latent magic, trying to remember how keratin worked. Hair follicles were particularly finicky and her concentration wasn't completely perfect first thing in the morning. She stopped after a few minutes when she felt the tickle of regrown hair brushing her shoulders; that was long enough for now.

"Better?" she asked, rolling her eyes at her wife.

"Yeah, thanks! You looked so weird."

"Charming. You sure know how to flatter a woman."

She sighed and floated up into the air, stretching and yawning before drifting across to claim her morning kiss from her wife.

They made their way down to breakfast together, talking quietly and anticipating a relatively calm day with the family. It was Sunday, not much was happening and after Phoebe's screaming match with her Mama and Jake's brush with almost being digested yesterday nobody was really in a mood to go far from the palace.

Bonnie stopped dead in the doorway of the dining hall and Marceline nearly floated into her back. She looked over her wife's shoulder with a frown, wondering why she'd stopped.

Phoebe was up already and sitting at the table with a bowl of coal and her friend from lumpy space and apparently half of her friend's bedroom, too. The strange shaped purple girl was stuffing food into her mouth with one hand and gesticulating wildly to Phoebe with the other. She was apparently in the middle of breathlessly recounting a thrilling story of some kind. They were surrounded by bags and assorted trinkets and possessions. A rumpled sleeping roll and a collection of used tin cans in an old plastic bag sat by the table along with a camping lamp and collection of sticks of various sizes and shapes.

"Oh hey, like, good morning? Mrs Queen. Queens. Whatever."

"Mom, Mama! Can LSP come live with us?" Phoebe asked brightly when she saw them in the doorway. "Her parents kicked her out and she's homeless now."

Bonnie cursed very softly in German under her breath.

"I'll ring her parents." Marceline sighed wearily, plans for a cosy Sunday watching old movies with the kids evaporating in front of her eyes.

A quick call later confirmed that no, the king and queen of lump space had not in fact kicked their daughter out, she'd run away and had been living rough in the woods. They'd already begged her to come home several times but to no avail. And they were so very grateful to the Vampire-Candy queens for taking her in.

"We are not taking her in!" Bonnie sighed exasperatedly.

"She won't go home, and come on babe, she's no trouble really, is she?" Marcy asked gently.

"You can't just rescue every lost child you see, Marcy! You're like a broody Mommy hen with a clutch of cuckoo eggs! We are not fostering Lumpy Space Princess!"

"Grod, would you chill out? I wasn't suggesting we should actually foster her full time. And thanks, by the way, that's a really flattering comparison. I was gonna suggest that we find somewhere else to put her up. LSP clearly thinks she's big enough to fly the nest, the last thing she needs is a new set of Moms trying to parent her. She's Phoebe's best friend and we could do worse for our political alliances than making sure she's got somewhere safe to be. Jeez." Marcy finished with an eye roll, stung that Bonnie had been so cruel about her maternal instincts.

It was all Finn's fault, she reflected. From the very first time she'd picked him up she'd found that she had a previously undiscovered urge to protect and nurture. She was certain she'd never been like that before the tiny human baby had smiled angelically at her and tried to put his sticky little thumb in her mouth. He had been adorably cute as a baby though. Marcy made a mental note to go look through their old photographs again later, when Bonnibel was busy and wouldn't tease her for being sentimental.

"I'm sorry, love." Bonnie replied quietly, breathing out hard and visibly calming herself. "I just don't need this today. Phoebe's still nagging me about letting her tend the rose garden and that fire wolf of hers is looking suspiciously large recently. I'm sure it's unrelated but a batch of experimental growth hormone disappeared from my lab a couple of weeks ago and I don't much care if they're experimenting on the pup- I mean I do, it's not a good thing- but what if they get it into their heads to drink it themselves?"

"I'm sure they wouldn't be that stupid, babe." Marcy replied soothingly, sliding her arms around her wife's shoulders in a reassuring hug. She made a mental note to watch the fire wolf very closely for any sign of scientifically assisted growth and to have a stern word with the kids about not messing around with stuff they didn't understand.

"They're just getting so big." Bonnie mumbled against Marcy's shoulder. "Where did the time go? Seems like they were just tiny babies five minutes ago, now Jake's out on the roof every evening playing his viola with his girlfriend and Finn's voice is starting to drop. What if I'm not ready to let them out into the world?"

Marcy didn't have a good answer to that, it was the same thing she'd been thinking for a while now too. She settled for hugging her wife tightly and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"I know, babe." she murmured.

...

"Woah, like, you're giving me your actual _treehouse_?"

For the first time in forever LSP was genuinely speechless. Phoebe's Mom was grinning at her like she'd just pulled off some magnificent prank and her hunky younger brother was poking around interestedly in the cupboards.

"Mom," he called excitedly, "there's a ton of old records in here! Really old ones, like, pre-war!"

"I love music." LSP told him a little breathlessly. "Like, I think your Mom is really cool."

The vampire grinned at her again and to LSP's horror Finn just rolled his eyes in reply.

"Not _really_ cool. Like, not The Beatles cool."

"I've, like, never heard of them?" LSP hazarded carefully. She had every single album Marceline and the Scream Queens had ever released though, and it annoyed the crap out of Phoebe.

Finn smiled at her and she dropped a couple of inches from where she was hovering, heart speeding up a bit because he was just _so dreamy_. His cool Mom hid a grin behind her hand and went back to floating around poking long forgotten possessions in her former home.

"Here." he said quietly, handing LSP a big square record sleeve.

It had a picture of four human men on the front walking across some weird looking white and black stripes. They all had what LSP assumed was human hair, long and silky looking like Finn and his Mom. Grinning and bouncing enthusiastically Finn slid the record out from its sleeve and reverently placed it in the old gramophone in the corner. For a second there was the crackly almost-silence of old vinyl starting up then a wave of drums and a lilting bass line rolled through the treehouse followed by a pulsing riff of old fashioned guitar. By the time the lyrics rolled in too even Marceline had stopped rummaging in the cupboards and was listening intently.

"Yeah ok, they're pretty awesome." LSP agreed breathlessly, watching the way Finn bopped his head in time to the music.

Marceline frowned after a couple of seconds, straining her sensitive ears to pick up the extra noise that shouldn't be there. Finn had put the record on pretty loudly and even Phoebe was sticking her head down from where she'd been investigating the bedroom to listen. But underneath the soulful voice of John Lennon she could just make out someone else singing, a voice that wasn't part of the original recording. She went to investigate a cupboard she hadn't had the chance to look in yet, the voice seemed to be coming from in there.

 _"...say I know you, you know me. One thing I can tell you is you got-_ Ah! You found me!"

"Oh." Marceline said quietly, blinking in surprise at the happy little robot looking back at her from behind a cobweb covered box of washing powder. "BMO."

"BMO is Hide and Seek champion! One hundred and thirty seven thousand and eighty nine hours! Now you hide and I will seek for you!"

She did a quick mental calculation. Fifteen years, six months, three weeks and a bit, she'd been bored and playing Hide and Seek with the little MO when Ash had come home and nonchalantly told her he'd sold her Hambo. That was the last time she'd seen BMO. She'd screamed at Ash that they were over then gone straight to the palace and taken her anger out on Bonnie's very willing flesh, forgetting all about the robot and the treehouse in the process. She hadn't bothered coming back; there was nothing she'd wanted from her life with Ash. She hadn't even known he'd left the treehouse and moved back to his own place too until much later. She waved at Finn to turn the gramophone down and stared at the robot sitting humming on the palm of her hand.

"Hey, BMO. I kinda... moved out. Sorry. I should have told you." she mumbled guiltily.

"I am Hide and Seek champion!" he repeated happily.

"Hey is that a MO?" Finn asked curiously, coming over to inspect the robot.

"Oh! And who is this handsome man?" BMO asked coyly as Finn picked him up. "Haha, he tickles!"

"Hey little dude, I'm Finn. Did you used to live here with my Mom?" he asked curiously, turning the giggling robot over and over in his hands, inspecting him from every angle.

"Yes! Marceline is your Mom? Is Ash your Dad?"

"Uh, Mom? Who's Ash?" Finn asked her, frowning. Marcy sighed heavily, avoiding his gaze.

"He was my dinkus ex-boyfriend, I lived here with him for a while a couple of years before I got back together with your Mama and moved into the palace with you and Jake and Phoebe. Finn, you know the special teddy bear I gave you when I first found you?"

"Hambo?"

"Yeah. Well he's actually Hambo II, he's a replica of the original Hambo that I had when I was a kid. My Hambo was just as special to me as yours is to you and Ash sold him, swapped him for a stupid cherry wand. So I broke up with him and left. And I sorta just never came back here. I was really upset about it."

Finn gaped at her, horrified. LSP was staring between them in confusion and Phoebe's head had popped down from the ladder again too. Even BMO was listening intently.

"But you're as old as garlic balls, you said so yourself! So like, your Hambo must have been hundreds of years old when he got swapped if you had him when you were just a kid." Finn gasped, horrified. Marcy nodded.

"He was about as old as I was, almost a thousand years. One of the only things I still had from when I was little."

She didn't mention Simon. After everything that had happened with Victoria she just couldn't bring herself to tell Finn about her childhood companion, about what he'd meant to her and how much she'd treasured the bear because he'd given it to her. But just like he always did Finn picked up on her mood anyway. He put BMO down and came across to her, folding her into a hug.

"I'm sorry, Mom. We'll get him back, me and Jake. We're heroes now."

"And me!" Phoebe added, sliding the rest of the way down the ladder and coming to join the hug.

"No. Please guys, don't go looking for Maja the sky witch. She's bad news. She makes Hawthorn look like a dainty fairy princess at a tea party." Marcy replied with a frown, hugging them both back tightly.

"Ok. I don't want you to worry about us." Finn replied quietly. Phoebe winked at him over their Mom's shoulder and Finn shifted his arm ever so slightly to show his sister his crossed fingers, careful to keep them well away from Marceline's line of sight. They shared a _look_ , the kind of look special to siblings close in age who'd grown up being partners in crime from the time they were old enough to walk. They both silently agreed.

 _They were going to find that bear._


	17. Chapter 17

**Another night shift, another chapter. I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out. It contains a little not-completely-canon idea I had about where Ash ended up after Marceline kicked him out. Next chapter might be a bit delayed because I'm away all weekend in Edinburgh for my lady's birthday and won't have time to write anything. But I'm excited about it, if you're on my tumblr (pplleessiioossaauurr) there'll probably be pictures and stuff if anyone's super interested.**

 **Content Warning: minor injury, bad language.**

* * *

"You're dead. Undead. Whatever. Mom is gonna kill you."

"Would you shut up? We agreed, this is hero work!"

"Well you're not heroing very hard from there! Hurry up and relax already, man."

"Hard to relax when you're barking in my ear. Geez, give me a second."

Finn closed his eyes and focussed as hard as he could. In his mind's eye he was a tiny child again, sitting on the wide flat roof at home watching the way Mama slowed her breathing right down and stretched into a complicated yoga pose. He'd still not managed to master the poses the way she could, even years later. But he could do the relaxed breathing and that was all he needed right now. He took a deep breath in and filled himself with mental light then exhaled slowly, imagining all the tension and stress in him as a dark smoke he was breathing out. His body was clean and energized, full of pure white light, and the tension dissolved out of his limbs.

The magical thorn bush relaxed around him and he finally sank through, almost falling to the ground until his brother caught him with a steadying paw.

"Thanks man." he breathed, immediately lifting his hands to check his hair.

Jake rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you just wear a hat, dude? You're gonna get crap in your hair." Jake asked in exasperation.

"Mom and Mama don't wear hats. Neither do Stefan or Billy or Olgar. Heroes don't wear hats, Jake. Hats are lame, only old fashioned lame humans wear hats and I'm not lame." Finn explained for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Would you two idiots shut up about hats and come help me over here?" Phoebe hissed from a way up the trail. They rolled their eyes and shared a look. Phoebe was overbearing and thought she could order them around like they were her personal servants. When Mama did it that was ok, because she was the queen and her subjects were her actual _subjects_. When Phoebe did it, it was because she was lame and sisters sucked. They hurried after her anyway, not wanting to risk invoking her wrath.

She was standing at the edge of a pool of water, prodding it gingerly with a stick. Jake suffered a sudden stab of old guilt; Phoebe was terrified of water and it was mostly his fault because of the day he'd accidentally pushed her into the river. She was standing as far back from the water as she could while still reaching with the stick and her flames were dancing in agitation; clearly she was more than a little anxious about being so close to the pond.

"It just reflects the sky." she told them quietly as they came up to her shoulder, like that explained anything at all. Jake looked at it, nodding when he caught her meaning.

"...And?" Finn prompted when his sister didn't say anything else.

"And it doesn't reflect anything else! Not even the trees or anything. Finn, use your brain, you butt! We're looking for a s _ky witch._ This pond only reflects the _sky_."

"Oh."

They followed her gaze to where she was stirring the surface of the pool contemplatively with the stick. It rippled like water but where the wood broke the surface there was no corresponding stick reflected back to them. And when Jake stared hard at the water it glittered in a not completely normal way, like it was trying really hard to tell his brain; _hey, I'm totally just boring everyday water. Nothing weird or magical about me._ That was suspicious, he decided. It was like the way Mama's invisibility told him that she definitely wasn't there, so don't bother looking at this patch of empty air here, nothing to see.

"I'll go first. You guys wait here, I'll come back for you if it's safe." Jake said firmly after a minute. He was the eldest and he was the one who'd wanted to be a hero first. If anyone was going to do anything dangerous it should he him; his siblings were so much younger than him now. He had to be the responsible adult. Jake ignored their protestations and stretched his upper body forwards, taking a deep breath before he plunged below the surface of the suspiciously magical pool and suddenly dizzyingly _up_ -

The world had flipped around him and he was falling upwards into the sky. His feet had left the ground on the bank too and there was nothing to stop him falling forever. Jake let out a terrified shriek, certain he was going to fall right out of the atmosphere and into actual space.

He slammed hard against the underside of something solid and sat up with a scowl, rubbing his ass where he was sure to get a bruise. When he looked around at what had stopped his fall he sucked in a surprised breath. It was a house floating right there in an upside down sky. Its corners were anchored by thin strands of pure magic to the pool below where he could see Finn and Phoebe's faces staring back at him like they were looking through a window. Jake carefully patted down his fur; he wasn't even a little wet. It was just an illusion, not water at all. He stretched back down to the surface and plunged his arms through, careful to keep the bulk of his bodyweight on the side where gravity worked in reverse.

Jake's paws crashed through the surface after a minute and a mouth shape shifted into the palm of one hand, followed by a tiny pair of eyes. He'd been doing that since they were babies but it still freaked Phoebe out a little.

"It's not water, guys! It's a magical illusion, it's not even wet. And I'm standing on the bottom of a house in the sky! Gravity works in reverse here." Jake's paw-face told them.

"A house in the _sky_. And we're looking for a _sky witch_." Finn nodded proudly to Phoebe. "That's probably where she lives."

"Yeah probably. Good catch, brainlord." she replied with an amused eye roll.

Jake's paws grabbed them and towed them both forwards through the illusion before they could continue bickering and they both yelled at the sudden shift in gravity, although their big brother didn't let either of them fall. He placed them carefully on the underside of the house next to him.

"You ok, Firefly?" Jake asked Phoebe worriedly.

"Yeah, you were right. It wasn't wet." Her voice shook just a tiny bit; it might not have actually been water but it looked enough like it for her to feel uncomfortable. Jake squeezed her shoulder comfortingly before he let her go.

Finn had already wandered over to the edge of the platform and was investigating the house above them.

"Jake, can you stretch us up to the porch?"

With a burst of unfamiliar magic all three of them were gathered up by some invisible force and deposited on the doorstep, before Jake could even open his mouth to reply. They stared at each other apprehensively.

"Spooky." Finn muttered looking around at the dilapidated porch they'd landed on.

Spookier still, the door slowly creaked open without any of them touching the handle.

"Reckon we should go in?" Jake muttered quietly to the others.

"No, I'm sure Maja will come out and have a friendly chat with us out on the porch, she's probably just fetching glasses for the lemonade. Dinkus." Phoebe replied with another sarcastic eye roll. She shoved past him and marched right into the darkened entrance hall with her shoulders squared and head thrown back haughtily.

"Listen up, creepy magic house! I am Princess Phoebe of the Vampire-Candy Kingdom and I demand to speak with Maja the Sky Witch on official royal business!" she called in a loud, carrying voice.

Both boys held their breath nervously, creeping in much less confidently than their sister and staring around at the piles of assorted magical junk and the shifting shadows. There was a strange scratching noise just on the edge of hearing but Jake couldn't pin down what direction it was coming from. He unsheathed his demon blood sword apprehensively.

"Well now, the mistress will be thrilled to see you."

The voice came from a dark shape on the ceiling that dropped noiselessly to the floor as it spoke, revealing itself to be a sort of rabbit-crow-man with an oily, unpleasant smile and a voice to match. Jake hefted his sword in his paw carefully, weighing up the chances he could land a killing blow before the other shape shifter could dodge or block him. He didn't know how he knew the familiar also possessed the power of transformation, sometimes Jake just knew things. He'd never questioned it, he'd always figured it was just regular Dog intuition.

"And what will I tell my mistress when she asks what your errand is, little princess? A pretty little spark like you shouldn't be wandering around a creepy old house all on her own without the protection of her parents, what would your poor Mama say?" the familiar asked silkily. He oozed closer to Phoebe and she stood her ground, glaring at him with the thousand-yard-stare Peppermint Butler used to get the Banana Guards in line. The crabbit stopped ever so slightly too close to her, invading her personal space. Phoebe just stared back impassively; he wasn't who she'd come to talk to and he wasn't following the official business protocols she'd been so careful to research.

"We're here to recover something stolen from our Mom." Finn replied a little squeakily. The crabbit whipped around to gaze at him instead, head cocked to one side as if to size him up. Jake tightened his grip on his sword, he didn't like the way the crabbit was looking at his baby brother. Like Finn was a particularly delicious steak he's only just noticed hidden under a pile of salad or something.

"Well, if it isn't handsome little Prince Finn, the 'last human'. But you don't even know who your mother is, you're no kin to these two creatures of magic. Are you not the very thing that was stolen?" the crabbit breathed quietly. He licked his lips and opened his mouth in something that wasn't a smile but did reveal a lot of needle sharp teeth.

Finn furrowed his brow.

"I know exactly who my mother is. Both of them. Love makes a family, not blood." At least he managed to say that confidently. They knew, they'd all known since they could remember, that 'adopted' didn't mean 'less of a family'. Jake was distantly glad that Finn was so confident in their parents. He lifted his sword slowly, lips pulled back into a silent growl. Nobody was allowed to stare at his little brother like they were thinking about eating him, not when Jake was there with his excellent sword.

"Well you're enough of an annoying chump to be Mar Mar's kid, for sure."

"Master." The crabbit whipped back from where he'd been eyeing up Finn and bowed reluctantly to the tall dark man who'd appeared at the foot of the staircase. "Where's the mistress? They demanded to speak with her-"

"She's out." the man replied brusquely. He strode forwards into the dusty patch of light filtering through the dirty windows and scowled around at them all. He was tall, easily as tall as their Mom though his skin was several shades darker grey than hers and made even darker by the wispy white-blonde Mohawk he wore. His ears were pointed in a very familiar way and his yellow-green eyes when they hit the light had an almost iridescent gleam.

"You're part demon." Jake accused him.

"Duh, mutt, I know." the stranger replied lazily. "And you're standing in my house. What do you want?"

"We're looking for Maja the sky witch, she stole something from our Mom-"

"She swapped something entirely fairly with someone. There's a receipt and everything. Fuck off or I'll set the crabbit on you." the stranger cut him off loudly, glowering around. "Go on, take your little brood of rescue chumps and get outta here."

"Something that was stolen can't be fairly swapped, it doesn't matter if there's a receipt. The man who took the bear didn't own it so he had no legal right to swap it. It's basic law. I'm not leaving without my Mom's teddy." Phoebe replied firmly, scowling back at him.

"Take a fucking hint. Get outta my house before I spray you with the fucking hose, you nosy little fire bitch." the man growled, coming up close and snarling in her face. Phoebe's flames danced angrily and she swelled with what Finn and Jake immediately recognised as one of her _moods_.

Phoebe had always had a short temper. Perhaps it was because of the fragile way their Mama especially still treated her, like she was still guilty about the lamp prison, or maybe it was because she'd grown up having to hold her own with two rowdy brothers. But the kids at their school had quickly learnt that any attempt to tease the little blue flame elemental resulted not just in her protective brothers instantly leaping to her defence but also a swift and brutal campaign of counter harassment from Phoebe herself. She could bite, kick, punch and scream with the best of them until she got her way and no about of bargaining, begging or ordering would make her apologise when she felt she was in the right. Phoebe was probably the most stubborn person either of her brothers knew, she was even worse than their Mama. And the strange part-demon man was about to get the full force of what Finn had nicknamed Hurricane Phoebe.

The whole room was suddenly dancing with angry blue flames. They weren't hot enough to properly burn anything but even behind the scientifically reinforced Flame Shield they were uncomfortable when they touched exposed skin. Phoebe herself had become a huge ball of indigo flame with nothing but fiery slits where her eyes and mouth had been a moment before and she towered over the part-demon man who cowered back in shock.

"THE BEAR WAS STOLEN AND THE BASTARD WHO TOOK IT HAD NO RIGHT TO IT! RETURN IT TO US NOW OR I WILL BURN YOU TO ASHES-"

She cut off with an agonised scream when the man hastily flicked his fingers forwards and a jet of magical water hit her in the face, sizzling and steaming when it passed through the Shield and touched her blazing skin. The angry flames leapt higher and Phoebe grew even bigger, roaring with pain and rage.

Jake saw red.

That day at the river had been his fault and he'd never stopped feeling guilty about it, even years later. But this, this was deliberate. Nobody hurt his sister. Her scream cut right past all his macho bravado and pretend annoyance with her and went right to the deep brotherly love underneath. Jake charged forward, swinging his sword wildly.

He wasn't entirely sure what happened after that. There was yelling and blue flames blazing everywhere and his blade connected with somebody. Finn was screaming his head off about something and the demon man was shooting more magical water around the place. Then the air exploded into the same angry buzzing that had heralded the shadow demon when Mom had given him his sword and suddenly Kee-Oth burst into existence in the air before him, shoving him roughly out of the way and rounding on the part-demon.

"PRINCE JACOB!" he screamed in panic, "STAY BACK! I HAVE HIM!"

The blue flames disappeared and Phoebe shrank back down to regular size, still fizzling quietly and looking as though she might cry around the wisps of steam rising from her face. Finn was wrestling the crabbit on the floor and despite a rapidly swelling black eye and the steady drip of a nosebleed he seemed to be gaining the upper hand. But the tall grey skinned man had fallen back with his hands clamped on his upper arm where a thin line of blood could be seen seeping halfway down his shirt sleeve.

"NO! Mercy, please!" he screamed as the shadow demon advanced.

"Ash. I might have known." Kee-Oth snarled. "How many times, dude? Leave. Lady. Abadeer. Alone."

"I didn't ask her stupid fucking kids to come here! They're crazy! They came and attacked me for stealing her fucking teddy bear!" Ash replied shakily. He slid his hand away from his arm, whimpering, and glanced down at what was actually a pretty small cut.

"You attacked me first!" Phoebe squealed indignantly. "You threw water in my face!"

Kee-Oth turned back to Ash with an expression like a thundercloud.

"That girl is thirteen years old! Thirteen! And she can't regulate her temperature! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!" he screamed, bearing down on the prone part-demon angrily. Ash whimpered again and flung his hands over his head.

"Take it! Take the fucking bear! Just leave me alone!"

Without looking up he flicked his fingers again and instead of a jet of water a tatty old teddy bear floated down from the hatch that lead to the attic, landing with a soft puff of dust in Jake's outstretched paw. It looked exactly like the one Finn still had guiltily stuffed under his pillow, except older and clumsily repaired in places. Jake handed it to his brother who placed it reverently in his backpack.

"If I hear a single word about you coming near Lady Abadeer's family or her Ladyship ever again I will drag you back down below and let Hunson Abadeer deal with you _personally_." the shadow demon hissed. He swirled around to where Jake and Phoebe were examining Finn's battered face. "Come." Kee-Oth commanded them.

"I'm outta here too, Ash! You can tell Maja to find a new familiar, I'm off! I'm gonna be a dancer! From now on you can get the tar kicked out of you by little kids _without_ my assistance!" the crabbit yelled. He was limping and also looked pretty badly beaten. "Truce?" he added to Finn.

Finn nodded, careful not to move his head too much and make his nosebleed worse.

"Yeah man, no hard feelings." he replied thickly.

"Right. Let's away." Kee-Oth growled. He clapped his dark wings together and the house dissolved around them in a swirl of dark tones and then resolved a moment later in a gloomy empty room, just themselves and the furniture.

"Where are we?" Finn mumbled, pressing the corner of his sleeve against his nose.

"The backroom of a bar in Wizard City's Healer Quarter. We've gotta fix your face before you go back to the palace." Kee-Oth explained. "The barman owes me a favour. Wait here and I'll bring you some healing magic."

He swept out of the room and the buzzing went with him. The kids looked around at each other.

"That was-" Jake started.

"Scary." Phoebe finished. "Scary as hell and also really fun. Being a hero is awesome! You think Mom and Mama would be mad if they knew about it?"

"Are you kidding? Mama would be in bed for a month with a stress migraine and Mom would ground us for an actual literal decade. You wouldn't be allowed to even think the word 'library' and I would be banned from the orchestra until the mountains wore down to the sea." Jake replied morosely.

"What about me?" Finn asked.

"You'd get a stern telling off and probably a hug and taken flying cause you're such a big Mommy's boy." Phoebe teased, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Whatever, you wish you were as cool as me!" Finn replied with a grin.

"Guys, cut it out. I'm serious, that was dangerous. And you know we can't tell." Jake cut across their playful bickering with a frown.

"So? We're heroes, we do dangerous stuff." Finn shrugged.

"S'pose." Jake replied quietly. "But let's try not to get beaten up by Mom's creepy ex-boyfriend again, yeah?"

By the time Kee-Oth returned with the healing magic the siblings were laughing together again. He healed Finn's battered face instantly with a foul smelling potion and fixed them all with the sternest expression a shadow demon could muster.

"I know you're not going to inform your mothers of this so it falls to me to deliver the necessary dose of parental disapproval. I am very disappointed in you all." he began. "You had the numbers advantage and the best sword in the grasslands. Ash is a slimy little donkus but since he shacked up with that sky witch he's gotten a shadier reputation than ever, you were just lucky Maja wasn't home. Princess Phoebe, next time you should wear a Water Shield."

Phoebe stared at him.

"There's such a thing as a Water Shield?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Of course. It's like the opposite of a Flame Shield. You can't have a permanent one since you're already permanently shielded but you can wear a temporary one that's bound to an enchanted crystal. Like this." The shadow demon tossed her a tiny blue gem on a thin chain, similar to the royal pendant that already hung around her neck. "It's not permanent and it will fail if it becomes overwhelmed. You can't go swimming with it but it will stop a spray of water from hurting you. Wear it only when you need it or the magic will become exhausted."

Phoebe examined the gem in fascination, holding it up with one blazing hand behind it to illuminate it.

"You, Prince Finn, need some better hand-to-hand training. Ask the vampire Stefan Hallvard to help you, I believe he already spars regularly with Queen Bubblegum and he's the best I've seen in centuries." Kee-Oth continued. "And Prince Jacob. Next time you wet my blade with an enemy's blood make sure it is a killing blow or I will have to abandon whatever I'm doing to come and rescue you again. My soufflé is almost certainly a blackened ruin by now."

"I'll, er, use another sword unless I know it's a fight to the death." Jake mumbled, embarrassed. "Thanks for the save."

Kee-Oth just nodded to them.

"Give me the bear and I will make sure it finds its way back to Lady Abadeer without implicating any of you."

Reluctantly Finn handed him the original Hambo. Kee-Oth folded it gently into the crook of one arm and nodded to them all again.

"I will send you back to the palace garden where you will claim to have just returned from an extended stroll on the far side of the Candy Forest, plenty of miles away from Ash's den. You will not mention this to your mothers but if you ever feel the urge then do remember to put in a good word for me with your grandfather. I am Lord Evil's most faithful servant."

With another swirl of demon magic they found themselves blinking in the sudden blaze of a magnificent sunset after the dark room they'd been in. Bonnie looked up in surprise from where she was watering the roses, shifting the watering can out of reach just in case Phoebe decided to start nagging her about it again.

"Hullo, where did you three pop up from? I was beginning to get a bit worried, you've been gone ages." she said with a smile, coming forward to straighten Finn's collar.

"We were out for a walk." Phoebe lied smoothly. "Did you know there's a whole colony of army ants out on the far side of Maple Meadows that use a sword and buckler instead of pike and shot?"

Finn and Jake exchanged a look, it was probably true. Phoebe knew all kinds of weird stuff. But Bonnie was happily chatting with her daughter about the various military tactics employed by the army ant colonies of the Candy Kingdom and they were saved from having to think of any further excuses for their extended absence.

"Remember, Stefan doesn't usually look into your thoughts without a good reason but just think real hard about army ants when you ask him to train you." Jake muttered to his brother in an undertone as they followed their sister and mother inside the palace.

Next morning all three of them grinned quietly to each other over breakfast, satisfied that their adventure had been worth it. The whole palace heard their Mom joyfully yell her beloved bear's name when she opened her eyes to find him sitting quietly at the end of her bed and the happy grin she wore all week was more than worth the fight. Jake especially was glad, they were real heroes after all.


	18. Chapter 18

**This chapter, this bloody _bloody_ chapter. I've been wrestling with this chapter for so damn long I started having stress dreams about it. But I think I covered everything I wanted to, in the end, and I'm actually quite happy with it. I've also been ill which didn't help.**

 **An absolutely massive shoutout to the magnificent RaInBoWsKuLlDrOpS for being the metaphorical boot up the buns I needed to get this chapter finished. Every single day she was like "hey go finish the next chapter of Continuum" and I was "I will, I am, I just gotta finish playing this flash game/writing this other thing/procrastinating like a massive asshole". And! You get an extra long chapter, partly in apology and partly because there was literally no way to fix all the stuff I wanted to fix without using two thousand words more than I usually aim for. Who'd have guessed a rewrite on a ten minute long cartoon would take so long? Anyway, enjoy. And review! If the spirit moves ya of course.**

 **Content Warning: feels, unconsciousness, animal death, character injury.**

* * *

Of course it turned out to be a better idea than Finn could ever have guessed to return Hambo to their Mom although it was a couple of years later before the ancient bear really became useful.

 _Needs must when the devil comes knocking._

There was something very ironic about remembering that saying while he was streaking across the bizarre countryside on a stolen flying carpet, Simon considered. He knew vaguely that the strange faced man he'd punched had deserved it for some reason but he couldn't for the life of him remember why. He shrugged, it was just another vague dream-like recollection from when he'd been Ice King.

But he remembered what had just happened to him pretty clearly. He remembered creeping around the place they called Wizard City and trying to join a secret society, remembered them feeding magic to a creature called Bella Noche. There'd been an explosion of pure anti-magic and his crown had grown somehow warm and dead, powerless. Then Simon was back in control, no longer a helpless passenger carried around in a tiny mental prison within Ice King's insanity.

He fled. Punched some grey faced man and stole his flying carpet ( _grey skin, pointed ears, was he a demon like little Marcy?)_ , left the Wizard Police to contain the creature of anti-magic. He had to get back to the frozen lair he called home these days, had to get to his Past Room. Simon was growing weaker by the minute. He was no fool, he knew he was dying from old age without the magic of the crown. And there was only one thing unresolved that he needed to do; in his final hours his thoughts were with his princess. He needed to apologise to Betty. So when he touched down in the rapidly melting Ice Fort and hurried down the steps his scream of fright mingled with that of the pale blue teenage girl who'd been lounging on the frozen sofa playing videogames.

"Dad?" she whispered in a voice full of horrified terror. Oh no. _No._ He looked around wildly, hoping desperately that she was talking to someone else but there was nobody but him there. His eye was caught by a photograph hung by the door. The same girl at maybe seven years old, sitting on Ice King's shoulders eating a snow cone and waving happily at the camera. He stared at the girl in the photo and the old man she was with. Same hair, same smile, same skin and if the casual frosting she'd reinforced the snow cone in the picture with was any measure, same powers. She was an Ice Princess then.

"I… you're my daughter?" Simon managed to rasp out after a couple of failed attempts to speak where his throat closed tightly around the words. Of all the things he'd thought to find this was not one of them, he was reeling with the shock of it.

"Dad, what happened?" she asked. She was equally raspy, eyes suddenly brimming with tears and Simon felt a stab of terrified guilt because he was somehow leaving a daughter orphaned and he had absolutely no idea what to do about it, had no idea where she'd even come from.

"I got hit by a wave of anti-magic. Ice King is… gone. It's just me now. Just Simon." he replied faintly. "I need… need… someone with me."

There wasn't any time to explain, though he desperately wanted to sit her down and try to make her understand why this was happening. Instead he grabbed her cold arm and pulled her after him, down the stairs that were beginning to become treacherously slippery with melt water and along the corridor into his Past Room-

Or the room that had previously been his Past Room. He had no idea what had happened to the stacks of old papers and collected ephemera of his old life that he'd subtly influenced Ice King to store there. Now the room was full of old compacted snow and what looked like trashed laboratory equipment. It had an air of abandonment to it, like nobody had been there for a very long time. Years, to judge by the length of the twisting ice crystals growing from the ceiling.

"Dad, I'm not allowed down here." the girl told him a little nervously, eyes flicking warily around the room. "You said I wasn't ever allowed in this room, you sealed the door."

He just shrugged and kept on towing her forwards. Simon didn't have any headspace left to worry about what Ice King had done with the things from the Past Room or why his daughter wasn't permitted into the place where he'd stored them. They hurried along the secret passage that he'd expended the last of his influence on Ice King's mind to build so long ago then skidded to a halt inside the hidden library. Simon grabbed a dusty book from one of the groaning shelves.

"I wrote this a very long time ago, before the magic made me crazy." he told her quietly, staring down at the cover. "With the woman who should have been your mother. Look, we need to get my stuff and call Marceline."

"Call who? Who's Marceline? You mean, like, the singer? Wait, is- is she my Mom?"

Simon stared hard at the girl. Pale blue skin as smooth and matte as woven silk, white blonde hair with flecks of gold, small round ears and deep blue eyes that glowed like gemstones. She was no blood with his little Marcy, he was certain of it. But what relation would Marcy be to this girl? Aunt? Sister? Perhaps they'd somehow raised her together. Mother? No, that was too weird and gross, he was certain that wasn't right. He growled in frustration when his hazy memories only showed him vague flickers of Marcy's face; he knew she was still alive, all grown up now and somehow he was certain he'd seen her exchange beautiful wedding vows with someone years ago. Good, that was good. He was glad for her that she'd found someone. He just wished he knew where she was and how to contact her.

"I… don't think so. She's just someone who can help." Simon replied distractedly. He flicked the book open, looking for what he knew he needed, what something in the back of his mind told him was there. Out fluttered a photograph; oh it was his little girl-

He looked up at the pale daughter he'd somehow acquired. His other little girl, he supposed. He hoped they had a close relationship, hoped the ice daughter just didn't recog **n** ised Marcy's name for some trivial reason. He shook his head to clear the sentimentality. Too much to do, he had to focus. There was a number scrawled on the back of the ancient photo, that much he remembered forcing Ice King to record.

With a deep, steadying breath he picked up the receiver on the hidden library phone and dialled.

…...

"Yup?" Stefan answered the phone, still with most of his attention focussed on where Jake's girlfriend Lady was flipping Finn up in the air between Zoe and Matilda in a traditional Rainicorn game of catch the human. The little prince was bellowing so hard with laughter that Stefan struggled to hear the voice on the other end of the line.

"Wait, what?" he asked again, waving his hand at the others to quieten them. Stefan frowned, sure he was being messed with.

"Husband? What? No, I'm her Royal Guard. Who is this?" he demanded after a moment. Marcy had floated across to him, staring expectantly and motioning for him to hand over the phone. Stefan sighed and passed it across; maybe she could make more sense of it.

He slid just a small way into her thoughts as she answered, letting the general outline of them wash across him. Marceline frowned but didn't turn her attention from the phone. Surely she felt his presence in her mind but she wasn't actively trying to kick him out so he supposed she was ok with him intruding a little, for her safety. It was part of his job description; no matter that there was no Kingdom any more he would always guard her. When he felt her go rigid with shock and heard the name her suddenly reeling mind was screaming he blurred forward with a muttered oath, just in time to catch his queen before she hit the floor in a dead faint.

"Fetch your mother! Quick!" Stefan called to Finn, who nodded and sprinted off to the candy queen's study without asking any unnecessary questions.

" _Helvete,"_ he whispered to the girls, who'd drifted forwards with the humour wiped off their pale faces. "Simon's back."

Zoe was crouching low over Marcy, channelling as much of her Talent as she could into the prone woman to try to alleviate some of her shock. After a moment her eyes fluttered open and she stared at them all.

"Simon? Was it a dream?" she mumbled in confusion.

"Nej, min käraste _._ It was real." Stefan replied gently. He was shocked too, he barely even noticed that he'd half slipped back into old Swedish to comfort her.

They helped Marcy to stand shakily and a minute later her son and wife skidded around the corner, trailed by Princess Phoebe who must have been sitting with her mother when Finn found them.

"Marcy, what happened?" the candy queen asked in a voice full of relief at finding her wife conscious and upright at least. Marceline came forward and wrapped her in a crushing hug, burying her face in the other woman's shoulder and clinging on tightly.

"I have to go out for a while. I know you're not going to like it but I have to. It's Simon, he's back. He's not Ice King anymore, he's Simon again."

Bonnie could barely make out the words, Marceline hadn't lifted her head when she spoke. She tightened her grip on the distressed vampire but after a tense moment when Stefan was sure she was about to explode into anger and terror she surprised them all by speaking quietly.

"I know you have to go to him. I understand. Just, please don't expect that I can come with you because you know I can't. Please stay safe, love."

Marceline nodded, relieved, and they broke apart after a quick kiss.

"We're coming with you." Matilda said, nodding towards to Zoe. Marceline just nodded back, she obviously had no energy spare to fight them on it.

"And me."

They looked around. Finn was hefting his mother's axe from where it leaned against the wall and making a show of passing it to her.

"I'm coming too. I don't really understand what's going on but I'm a hero, heroes don't let their Moms go off on dangerous quests alone. Jake'll be furious he missed it but it's his own fault if he insists on going to stupid orchestra all the time. I get to be the hero this time."

"Just don't get yourself into a dangerous situation, ok?" Bonnie asked him, straightening his braid lovingly and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. "I trust your Mom to make sure nothing happens to you but you're going to listen to every word she tells you and behave yourself, do you understand? You too Phoebe, because I know we're going to have the 'I'm a hero too' conversation and you're going to win and yes you may go with them but I expect you both to be on your absolute best behaviour, are we clear?"

Phoebe had only just opened her mouth to interrupt; she'd not even managed to get the words out. She just nodded to show she understood then flashed her parents a quick grin.

"Come on, we don't have time to lose. There's something I need from the bedroom, you guys go ahead and I'll catch you up." Marceline commanded the children, before sweeping out of the window and speeding upwards through the evening air to the balcony several floors above. Finn and Phoebe shrugged to each other and climbed onto the backs of the two enormous vampire bats hovering in the air where their aunts had been a moment before.

…

Three strange things were flying towards them through the night, fast enough that it was only a few moments between Victoria noticing them and their sweeping close enough to be revealed as three massive bats, two with windswept riders clinging to their backs flanking a third with something hanging from one massive paw.

"Dad, who did you call?" she asked him in confusion, but before Simon could answer they'd plummeted in through the doorway and landed, transforming into three very pale women with two teens around her own age sliding off the backs of two of them. The woman in the middle was tallest, with a mane of midnight black hair falling almost to her feet and skin a couple of shades darker than the waxy grey-white of the other two. Victoria had seen her before, on the cover of old music magazines her father kept around the place. She was a famous singer, why had her Dad called a singer?

"Simon." the grey woman breathed, hovering forwards and wrapping him in a hug. "Grod, I never thought I'd see you again, I-"

She broke off with a strangled hiccough, to Victoria it sounded like she was trying to not cry.

"Mom? Who is that?"

They all turned at the voice, and Victoria sucked in a breath. She hadn't spared a thought for the two teens who'd come in with the flying women but now her eyes were drawn to them like they were magnetic. There was a girl made from blue fire who stared at her with hard eyes; Victoria instantly disliked her. Fire and ice were anathema. But next to her was a tanned, peach skinned boy with his waist length golden hair bound back in an elaborate braid like one of the Mountain Vikings in her books. He was dressed in a richly embroidered blue tunic that was cut off at the arms to show off his biceps and looked muscular for his age. Where his eyes caught the light they gleamed the same shade of blue as hers, like they were made from sapphires too. Victoria hadn't even dreamed that someone so handsome could even exist.

"Hey, I'm Prince Finn." he told her quietly when he felt her eyes on his face.

"Hi." she said back squeakily.

"Do you live here? I didn't know the Ice King had a daughter, Mom said we shouldn't come out here. Do you have a Mom?" he continued. The blue girl elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Finn! That's rude, don't ask if someone has a Mom! Geez, you're so insensitive!" she growled. But they were interrupted by the adults before Victoria could process the question or think of replying.

"Finn, Phoebe, there's someone I want you both to meet. This is Simon, he was my friend a very long time ago when I was just really little."

Victoria backed away and watched with huge eyes as they shook hands with her father.

"These are two of our kids, Simon. I've got an elder son too, Jake, but he's at orchestra practice right now and he'll be furious when he finds out he got left behind tonight." the grey woman continued.

"I remember some things, vague things, from being Ice King. Most of it was just a crazy blur but I remember seeing you in a wedding dress. I was happy for you, I think. But sad too, so lonely and-" he broke off with a raspy cough, suddenly gasping for air.

"SIMON!"

"Marcy, I'm dying." he managed to splutter. "Without the magic, I'm done."

"I could help! I could bite you, Turn you, you'd be a vampire like us and you'd be saved." the grey woman sobbed, suddenly distraught.

"No, it's been too long, I've lived too long. I'm ready for this. There's just one thing I need. Did you bring Hambo?"

She nodded, tearful, and the curvy blonde woman who'd come in with them held out the tatty looking old teddy bear that the grey woman had handed her when she'd transformed back from a giant bat.

"I want to say goodbye to Betty." Simon told her quietly around his increasingly laboured breathing. "I have to apologise to her. And I'm sorry to have to ask, Marcy, but I need Hambo to open the portal. Something ancient, something that's been cherished and loved for all that time. I'm sorry."

She hesitated visibly but when he was racked by another coughing fit she reluctantly handed over the ragged old bear.

"But Mom-" the boy who'd introduced himself as Prince Finn started.

"It's ok, Finn. It's just a thing, no matter how sentimental. Hambo isn't as important as people."

The prince nodded but still looked as though he'd like to argue. He watched warily as his mother handed the ancient bear across to the frail looking man in the cracked glasses. After that it all just became an incomprehensible blur to Finn. He was too busy peddling some huge machine to open a portal to allow the strange man to speak to someone from the past- he hadn't really been paying attention to the details. But when a portal shaped like the bear opened in the air in front of the man Finn gasped and almost stopped peddling in surprise. Aunt Tilda deftly shoved him out of the way and took over on the machine before the power could fail and close the portal prematurely. Finn shot her a grateful smile and she winked back. There was a cry and he looked around again in time to see a human woman stumble through the portal and into the arms of the stranger his mother had called Simon.

Finn stared harder. He'd never seen another human up close before, not that he could remember anyway. He supposed he must have seen his biological parents when he was a baby but his earliest memories involved his Mom's lullabies and Mama patiently teaching him to read in front of the fire in her study. He certainly had no memories of human women. She was slim and strangely dressed, hair a coppery orange several shades lighter than his Aunt Tilda's above green eyes made slightly large by jaunty glasses. And her skin was a warm looking peachy pink too, like his. Finn liked her immediately. But then the man called Simon that she'd been enthusiastically kissing dropped to his knees with a gasp and they were talking rapidly in quiet voices. The woman shook her head and said "no" a lot and the man nodded seriously, still coughing from time to time. And then she was pulling him onto the magic carpet still lying rolled in the corner and sweeping out of the room, closely followed by his Mom and aunts.

"Guys, wait here, we'll be back soon. Phoebe's in charge, please don't fight."

And then they were gone and he was alone with his sister and the Ice Princess. He didn't even know why he was surprised; it was just like his Mom to let him think he was helping then sneak him away from the action and fun anyway because she was always so terrified he'd hurt himself or something, like he was still a little kid. Finn swallowed nervously, unsure what to say or what to do next. He shared an anxious glance with Phoebe whose flames were dancing agitatedly.

"You'll get too cold, come here." Finn told her when he saw how she shivered and cast apprehensive glances at the frozen walls. She slouched over to him reluctantly and he shrugged out of his tunic, wrapping the extra layers of cloth around her shoulders.

"Th-thanks, Finn. This ice place cr-creeps me out." Phoebe bit out around her chattering teeth.

"Excuse me? This 'ice place' happens to be my home and you are a guest here."

They both whipped around at the icy tone and Finn found himself shirtless and face to face with the most gorgeous girl he'd ever seen, glaring angrily at them both. His blush was so deep he was surprised steam didn't come out of his ears.

"Oh, well my d-deepest apologies, Princess. Your father called our mother to come save him, I wasn't aware I would be travelling to a K-Kingdom where the custom was to ignore basic hospitality and allow guests to freeze to death. Please rest assured you'll receive the same w-welcome in our Kingdom should you ever visit. Perhaps my m-mothers will invite you to my funeral after I die from freezerburn flu." Phoebe replied with narrowed eyes and gritted teeth. Finn bit his lip compulsively; she was using the same sharply polite sarcasm their Mama used to shame quarrelsome nobility into silence or start an argument with Mom.

"Hey, be nice, Firefly. Her father's dying. I'm sure she didn't mean to offend you." Finn murmured diplomatically. He turned to the Ice Princess and bowed formally, following the polite etiquette for visiting royalty that he'd practiced since he was small. "Do you have a blanket or something we can borrow to keep my sister warm? She can't regulate her temperature and she'll get ill otherwise."

"You can use the blankets off my bed. Don't burn them."

"Deepest thanks, Milady. We are in your debt." Finn murmured with another demure bow. The Ice Princess flushed an embarrassed lavender and hurried away to fetch the blankets.

...

"Simon, who are you talking to?" Marceline asked him as they sped back through the desert to Wizard City.

"Death." he whispered back, looking around. "I don't have long. This is all so unnecessary, I just need to say goodbye. If I die as Simon it's better than living as Ice King until the sun explodes."

"Nobody's dying today. Alright? We're gonna fix this. Faster." she added, yelling it to the mythological figure from her childhood who glanced back over her shoulder and nodded. The magic carpet sped up a little more.

Marceline had grown up hearing stories about Betty, the same way she'd grown up hearing stories about the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus. It was bizarre to finally come face to face with someone she'd considered at least partway fictional, someone whose ghost she felt like she was close friends with. She knew everything about Betty but the human woman knew nothing about her.

Simon hadn't really exaggerated her at all, Marcy thought. Betty was every bit as beautiful as he'd told her and crazy smart too. Suddenly Marceline had a much better idea of why Ice King had been so taken with Bonnie; somewhere in the back of his mind she reminded him of the fiancée he hadn't remembered in centuries. But as they approached Wizard City fast enough that the wind ripped their words from their mouths Marceline had something else to worry about.

It hit Zoe first; she was out in front and for a moment Marceline thought the blonde vampire had deliberately swan dived to the ground with a scream. But then a moment later Tilda fell out of the air and before she could open her mouth to ask what was happening Marcy was falling too. Gravity reclaimed her with a vengeance and suddenly the ground was rushing up and she couldn't do anything to soften her landing, couldn't fly or control her descent. With a sickening _crunch_ she hit the ground and familiar agony blossomed all through her body as she skidded to a standstill in the dirt. Broken bones, taste of blood in her throat. The last time she'd been unable to instantly heal an injury Joshua the Dog had been glaring down the length of his demon blood sword at her, screaming his insanity.

"Marcy, are you ok? What happened?"

Betty had stopped the magic carpet which wasn't looking as stable as it had a second ago. They were right outside the city walls anyway, Marceline could feel the pull of anti-magic and knew what must have happened.

"I'll live. Just go, find Bella Noche, do what you have to. We'll be fine. _Go_." Marceline added when it looked like Simon was about to argue. Betty didn't give him the opportunity. The carpet began to move again, stuttering weakly through the air beneath the city gates. Marcy watched them out of sight worriedly, trying not to look down at the way her left leg stuck out at the wrong angle. It looked like the magic carpet wouldn't hold out much longer either; she hoped Simon would be ok.

"Hurts." Tilda was gasping when she turned to the two women behind her. The redhead's arm bone was protruding sharply through the skin above her elbow and her face was stained with tear tracks. Zoe didn't seem too badly injured, she'd managed to roll with the fall and was just scratched and dazed. Marceline dragged herself over to them both, still not looking at the weird twisting in her leg. She could feel her bones feebly trying to reassemble themselves but they just didn't quite seem able to manage it.

"We lost our magic, Bella Noche is sucking it right out of the air." Marceline gasped against her crippling pain.

"We're gonna die like Simon?" Zoe asked in a voice laced with panic. Her Sire shook her head.

"I dunno. Maybe? I don't feel like I'm dying from old age. I feel like my leg is broken and I can't heal it and I want to fucking murder someone but not like I'm dying."

"I'm dying." Tilda sobbed. "Oh _fuck_ it hurts, my _heart-"_

Marceline concentrated past the agony and she could feel it too; her heart was fluttering a little outside of her control, trying to beat, trying to turn her mortal again. Until their magic was either restored or fully removed all three of them were only part vampire and only partly immortal. And they were vulnerable, bleeding and defenceless and lying helpless in a wilderness full of hungry predators. Was it just her imagination or were there eyes gleaming out of the gathering darkness around them? Marceline had lost most of her night vision when she'd fallen. She wasn't certain but she tried to heft her axe anyway, relieved beyond words that she was still able to bring the wicked edges to bear at least to chest height, though her arms shook appallingly.

"If I die here," she murmured quietly to the other two, staring around them, "tell my wife and kids I loved them more than anything in the world. I want a big fancy funeral, a proper Viking style pyre. I want Olgar singing his stupid death poems and everyone in black grieving me. Tell them stories about how heroic my death was, leave out the bits where I mangled my leg bones and wanted to cry because I was scared and hurt. Deal?"

"Deal." Zoe replied distractedly, also staring around. There was a growing noise on the edge of their hearing, a low rumbling growl. Marceline shared a look with the blonde and handed the axe across reluctantly. Wolves, she was certain of it. And she was injured, unable to use her powers, unable to do anything but rely on her uninjured Lineage to protect them both.

"Zoe?" Tilda asked in a voice laced with fear.

The blonde wrenched her gaze away from the darkness and down to her injured lover, and that's when they pounced. Suddenly the air was full of snarling and the gleam of teeth, unnaturally huge dark grey shapes leaping from the gloom all around them. Zoe swung the axe wildly and the wolves yelped in pain as the blade connected with their flesh.

"Zoe!" Tilda cried again in terror, and the only thing Marceline could think to do was drag herself the rest of the way across to her friend and wrap her arms around the younger woman's shoulders, cower behind Zoe as she tried to fend the wolves off with the borrowed axe. Distantly she could hear shouting coming from within the city too; no doubt the sentries had other things to worry about than rescuing three suddenly vulnerable injured vampires.

The biggest wolf, probably the alpha male, had Zoe by the shoulder and was trying to wrestle her down, trying to work her into a position for the rest of the pack to tear her apart even as she cut them down with a snarl. The air was thick with the scent of cool almost-human blood and the lingering vampirism was making Marceline's mouth water even as she grabbed the scruff of a lanky female making for Tilda's throat. She still had her demon strength; once second the snarling creature was twisting in her hands and wicked teeth were scraping down her arms, the next its neck snapped loudly beneath her merciless hands and she was flinging the limp corpse towards the approaching pack while someone screamed. Maybe it was Matilda, maybe it was Zoe. Marceline didn't stop to find out; she grit her teeth against the agony of her shattered leg and half crawled half dragged herself into a protective crouch over Tilda, snarling back at the circling wolves. Zoe was down, still wrestling the alpha, growling and trying to bite him even as he sunk his fangs into her flesh over and over again. The rest of the pack were edging closer, Marceline couldn't keep them all in her line of vision though she whirled as fast as her agony would allow. Without warning there were teeth on her throat and it was too much like the Vampire King, too much like the world-ending horror of feeling his teeth slip almost loving through the soft flesh. For the first time in fourteen years Marceline's demonic bloodlust took over and she lost control completely. There was no pain, nothing but the burning need to kill.

Bloody fur, grinding bones. Screams, yelps, dangerous lupine shapes becoming nothing more than formless rags of fur leaking gore beneath violent grey hands that blurred with furious speed. And then there was Zoe's Talent wrapping her in calmness, demon bloodlust dropping away to nothingness. Marceline came back to herself to discover she was hovering ten feet off the ground with scraps of wolf flesh covering her arms and chest, injuries healed and heart silent and cold again.

"Come on, come back. That's it. They're already dead, you can stop. The magic is back and Ice King went back to his fort. Betty's here, she wants to talk to you." Zoe murmured softly. There was fresh blood still soaking her clothes but by the faint light of the emerging stars Marceline could see that her skin was whole and smooth again too.

They landed together and came forward to where Matilda was talking in a low voice with the human redhead. The flare of a human pulse ached against Marceline's fangs but she ignored it with the long practice of centuries; she'd never even been tempted to feed from Finn, there was no chance she'd hurt Simon's ancient fiancée.

"You ok, Tilda?" Marcy asked her worriedly. She nodded, still looking a little shaken but whole and hovering again.

"Yeah, just a bit freaked out. Humanity isn't a fun place to visit even as a tourist. Anyway, you've got some Official Business. May I introduce to you, formally, Dr Elizabeth Grof?"

The human woman came forwards and took her hand.

"They tell me you're the queen of vampires, and your son is the last known human." Betty said quietly with a little curtsy.

"Yeah. Yeah, they told you right. And you're pre-war, you can't get home?"

Betty shook her head.

"I wouldn't leave even if I could. Simon's still inside that madman, I have to try to save him. Can you teach me about this place, show me magic? Simon trusted you. He raised you, he told me."

Marceline paused, thinking it through. But she couldn't see any downsides to letting Betty stay.

"Sure. With two conditions, though. Stay close by, so I can keep you safe. It's a dangerous world here and you're gonna be a target whether you like it or not. Simon would never forgive me if I let something happen to you. So, stay close by. And teach my son about being a human. He's at that age where he has questions, he wants to know so much more than I can teach him. I was five years old when the world ended so unless he wants to know the lyrics to Thunderstruck or that C is for Cookie I'm not really much help."

"Of course. He's the last human, I'd be honoured to teach him about our culture. If you'll help me find a way to help Simon." Betty replied calmly. She was taking it all very well, Marceline supposed. Better than she would have figured; probably a huge emotional breakdown would be just around the corner but she could make sure Stefan was around to help with that. So they rose into the air, this time with the human woman riding Tilda's giant bat form, and returned back in the direction they'd come to claim the queen's children and formally introduce Finn to his new cultural tutor. After that they could deal with the emotional fallout; Marceline at least was certain that once the numbness wore off she'd be a wreck for a while. But that was tomorrow's concern.


	19. Chapter 19

**Why yes, I do hate myself for the crappiness of my updating. I've had a lot of stuff going on lately which I know isn't a good excuse but I am gonna try to focus harder on getting this story finished. I have it all planned out in glorious Technicolor in my head, I just need to get it all written down. Huge apologies, guys. Stuff will move faster soon.**

 **Content Warning: feels, unrequited and otherwise.**

* * *

Slipping away from the numerous watchful eyes that always guarded him was difficult, but Finn managed it a few times over the next several months. The first time he slid sneakily around the doorway of the Ice Fort and flashed his biggest grin at Victoria she screamed and sent a stream of ice at his head. Finn was glad he'd waited until her father left and this time he'd even followed Jake's advice and worn a hat, not wanting to risk his ears freezing off. But once she recognised him Victoria was full of apologies and they spent an afternoon together listening to music and talking without Phoebe glaring daggers at them or assorted parents sweeping back unexpectedly through the window and interrupting them. Victoria was like nobody he'd ever met before; she didn't know anything about the world but what she'd read in her books. But she was so smart and so curious; she had a sort of magnetism that he found irresistible. It didn't hurt that when Finn spoke the Ice Princess gazed at him like he could explain the mysteries of the universe.

Of course he got caught going out a couple of times. His Mama lectured him at length about not sneaking out at night, his Mom sighed and told him in tones of pure heartbreak that she was so disappointed in him, Jake threatened to keep him under twenty four hour supervision. Finn didn't care. He was like the human man from the famous human play Betty had made him read, like Romeo stealing off to visit his Juliette. But they wouldn't end tragically, Finn was determined. He was sixteen and he was certain he was in love. And he was a human and now he knew that for humans nothing in the world was stronger than love. So he'd go and if his family didn't like it they could yell at him afterwards but they couldn't keep him away from her, love had given him wings just like Romeo. He just hadn't quite worked out how to tell her so yet.

"Hey. Victoria. Hey, wake up. I've got something to show you."

It was the middle of the night and Finn had sneaked like a ninja into her room. It wasn't creepy, right? He had a surprise for her. Under the guise of pretending he was interested in his parents' relationship Finn had asked his Mama what the most romantic thing Mom had ever done for her was. And Bonnie had sighed nostalgically and replied that they'd gone flying and stargazing together, the first time she'd ever flown with someone. Well that sounded pretty damn romantic to Finn. He just had to figure out how he could fly without help.

"Finn? What are you doing here? My Dad's asleep right next door, how am I going to explain having a boy in my room if he wakes up and catches you?" Victoria hissed back after a second.

"Well come with me and he won't catch me in your room, will he? Come on, I really gotta show you something while the weather holds." he whispered back. She slid out of bed and followed him curiously, stopping only to pull a sweater over her pyjamas.

On silent feet they tiptoed out of the Ice Fort, past the little cradle where Gunther snored and hooted in his sleep and out onto the small entrance platform. Finn grinned wider when Victoria sucked in a huge terrified breath.

"Hey, it's ok! He's tame, he's gonna take us for a ride." Finn told her hurriedly when it looked like Victoria might scream or faint.

"It's a he? That thing is _tame?_ " she managed to whisper after a moment.

"Of course. He's called The Morrow, Mama raised him from a chick. I, uh, borrowed him for the night. The Vampire Guards are all out doing vampire stuff and my parents are asleep, I checked before I left. Nobody knows I'm here." Finn replied with yet another grin, the kind that made Phoebe's school friends swoon when he stole a kiss from them.

"You're so bad." Victoria giggled.

"Come on then. I've got something to show you."

She hesitated but after seeing how calmly The Morrow allowed Finn to jump up onto his back she followed, cautious but possibly more excited than she'd ever been before. Her heart was leaping around inside her chest like a salmon trying to jump up a waterfall and Victoria thought she might faint from the joy of it all. Sneaking out to go flying on a giant eagle with a handsome boy was probably the exact opposite of the kind of behaviour her father expected of her and somehow that just made it even sweeter.

With one last grin down at where Victoria was perched comfortably on the great bird Finn dug his heels in and whistled softly and they were rocketing upwards into the freezing air, already far above the mountaintops in just a couple of seconds. Victoria let out a strangled little squeak of fear and wrapped her arms tightly around Finn's waist.

"Wanna see a trick?" Finn called to her over the noise of impossibly fast wind rushing past their faces.

"NO!" Victoria yelled in reply. But it was too late. Finn had whistled three trilling notes and the giant eagle flipped upwards then momentarily upside down, with the glacier half a mile below them suddenly suspended above their heads. Victoria held on even tighter, tears of fright streaming horizontally along her face.

"I taught him to do a loop de loop!" Finn told her delightedly. "Isn't this awesome?"

"No! Slow down, please!"

Reluctantly Finn whistled two sharp notes and The Morrow slowed and steadied, gliding through the snowy landscape like a huge pale ghost.

"Is this better?" Finn asked her in a much more gentle tone.

"Yeah, a bit. This is bananas! We're flying through the night on a stolen eagle that you taught to loop de loop? Finn, if I fall to my death my father's going to be very upset with you." Victoria replied shakily. In truth she was starting to get over her shock. Once they were flying steadily it wasn't too bad.

"Hey, who said I stole this eagle? Perhaps I did legit borrow him."

"Did you?"

"Well no, but I might have. Besides, Mama's asleep. She's never gonna know."

"I don't want you to get in trouble because of me." Victoria mumbled, suddenly feeling unusually warm because she realised she'd been wrapping her legs and arms around Finn in a much closer embrace than she'd ever shared with anyone. She loosened her hold self-consciously.

"Nobody's gonna know. Besides, it's worth it. I like spending time with you." Finn replied. His eyes were unusually serious and his voice was almost too quiet to hear despite the silence of the night. Victoria didn't know what to say to that. She settled for biting her lip and guiltily watching the way the moonlight rippled through his long flowing hair where it stuck out from under his hat, mesmerized by him. Finn wasn't like anyone else she'd ever met either although that wasn't saying much. Most everyone Victoria had met was a penguin.

"Wait, where are we going?" she asked after a couple of long, tense minutes. "We're going right to the edge of the Kingdom, I'm not allowed out further than this."

"I bet you're not allowed to go flying in the night with boys either, so why not break a couple more rules while we're here? Make the most of it." he replied, eyes alight with mischief. "I'm going to show you some stuff!"

"What kinda stuff? Finn, there's no snow below us! It's all grey!"

"It's grass! It just looks grey in the moonlight, it's green through the day. Come on, there's way cooler stuff to see than just miles of boring grass. We're going to the Candy Forest!"

They swooped over the plains together on silent wings and Victoria stared all around her, more amazed than she'd ever known she could be. For years she'd dreamed about leaving the Ice Kingdom and exploring the places she'd read about in her books but she'd never really thought it would happen, certainly not with a handsome boy and his mother's borrowed eagle. But as they sped over the grassy landscape she saw shapes up ahead, trees. She'd seen pictures of trees but she hadn't ever imagined they would be so big, like huge dark hands with hundreds of fingers reaching out of the earth towards the sky as though they were trying to catch the stars.

They landed in a clearing and Victoria slid down from The Morrow's back, windswept and a little unsure if her suddenly weak legs would hold her weight. She was further from home than she'd ever been before and who knew what kinds of strange creatures and new things she might discover? The clearing was lit by the glow of hundreds of jars filled with flickering blue flames, the same kind of blue flames that Finn's awful fire sister was made from. Victoria wrinkled her nose when she recognised the fire, surely he hadn't brought his stupid sister along too? But Phoebe was nowhere to be seen. When she looked around Victoria saw a picnic blanket and more jars of flame, a hamper and two big round cushions on the blanket.

"A midnight picnic, Milady." Finn told her when he saw how she stared at the blanket. He'd had the idea when he thought about the day he'd gatecrashed what on reflection was probably Jake and Lady's first date. That was why he'd remembered about The Morrow too and decided on stealing the eagle.

"I've read about picnics." Victoria mumbled.

"And now you're about to have one. Come on, I stole my Mom's strawberries too. She'll think Aunt Tilda got into her stash again anyway, she won't be mad at me. And even if she catches me she won't yell, Mom never yells. Mama does pretty much nothing but yell at me so I guess it all evens out." Finn added with a casual shrug.

"She doesn't sound very nice." Victoria replied, frowning as she took a seat on the edge of one of the cushions.

"Mama? No, she's brilliant. She just gets stressed out and I guess I kinda annoy her sometimes. Mom says she's highly strung and I'm laid back so we clash a lot. Mom's pretty laid back too. But you'd like my Mama, she loves reading just like how you do. If you came up to the palace I could show you her library, she has every book in the world. Mom even gave her a book of old pre-war poetry when they first met, it's really pretty."

"I've never heard any." Victoria breathed in fascination. Finn smiled a little shyly and cleared his throat before he began to speak, a hypnotic almost chant that was reminiscent of singing but not quite following any tune. It was subtler; the words flowed like a waterfall from his lips and tumbled free into the night air all around them.

"I ne'er was struck before that hour  
With love so sudden and so sweet.  
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower  
And stole my heart away complete."

"That's beautiful." Victoria sighed.

"It's by an ancient human poet called John Clare. He was all about love and nature and the beauty of the world and stuff. His poems are rad." Finn replied as he took a seat next to her and opened the picnic hamper. He'd packed it himself and it was full of treats and things he'd swiped from the kitchen. Jake might be lame enough to play music and cook his own picnic food for Lady but Finn'd had an eagle to steal, no time to stand a cook like a chump. He handed over the strawberries with the air of someone passing across stolen crown jewels. In a way they almost were; his Mama cultivated them for his Mom herself and they were the sweetest and biggest anywhere in the Kingdom.

"Finn, can I ask you something?" Victoria asked carefully around a mouthful of strawberry.

"Sure."

"What's is like, having two mothers?"

He munched thoughtfully on his sandwich for a moment before shrugging.

"It's just my parents, you know? I guess it's not the way a lot of people have a family because most families have a Mom and a Dad, but my family is different. And I never really wanted a Dad. I always had Peppermint Butler and Uncle Stefan if I wanted someone to tell me about boy stuff, and Mom's like halfway between a Dad and a Mom anyway. And Jake, he's pretty cool too. You'll have to meet him some day. Mom's really funny, a lot of the time it's just like hanging with a really good friend but more awesome because she knows me better than anyone. And Mama's just, I dunno, just _brilliant._ Like, there's nothing she doesn't know. And she works so hard and runs the whole Kingdom and most of the world too. I don't know anyone who works harder or knows more or puts so much effort and thought into everything they do. Both my mothers are totally math."

Victoria nodded, like she'd gotten the answer to more than just one question. They lapsed into silence for a long minute while she tried to work out a way to tell him what she desperately wanted to.

"I think," Victoria began a little hesitantly, "that my Dad used to tell me stories about you, when I was little. But he changed the genders of all of your family, I think he thought it'd be creepy to just make up stories about real people. So you were Princess Fionna, the prettiest and bravest princess in the grasslands. And your sister was Cate the Cat who was sassy and cool and a brilliant musician. And your parents were called Marshall and Gumball and they were two Kings who were kind and funny and handsome and loved each other so much that other people were jealous of how perfect their relationship was. You had a brother too, a hot headed fire elemental called Philip. I never liked him."

"Phoebe's cool, you just gotta give her time to warm up to you." Finn replied, frowning. "And no offence? But it's kinda creepy that your Dad told you stories about us. I mean, did he come spy on us or something? I don't think Mama especially would be very happy with that. I think she's a bit scared of your Dad, he's a bit weird."

"My Dad isn't scary! And your Mama sounds kinda mental anyway, like why does she always work all the time? In the stories it was always King Gumball who was mean to King Marshall when they fought. Maybe I don't want to meet your Mama." Victoria replied resentfully. She'd nerved herself up to share a big part of her childhood with him and he was being mean about it? That wasn't how the princes in her books acted. Maybe Prince Finn wasn't a very nice prince after all.

"My Mama is not called Gumball! And she isn't mean to my Mom! And your Dad is creepy!" Finn replied angrily.

"I want to go home now." Victoria told him. "This wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. Take me home! Now!"

"You don't get to order me around, _princess_ , I'm not one of your penguins." Finn replied sourly. "Fine. Get on the eagle."

Without another word and glaring at him the whole time she stood and in her anger forgot all about her fear of the great bird. Instead she swung herself up onto The Morrow's back. Perhaps she was expecting him to come along too but instead Finn jumped to his feet and slapped the eagle on its rear.

"Take her home, boy!" Finn said loudly. Before Victoria could argue The Morrow had shot up into the sky with a piercing shriek and after a couple of seconds they were out of sight.

Finn sighed to himself and turned to pack up the remains of the picnic with an air of dejection dragging against him. He'd donked it up, his first real picnic date and he'd blown it. But it _was_ creepy that her father had told her stories about his family, right? It was. He was certain of it. He knew Mama at least would agree although he couldn't tell her about it. He was reaching for the leftover strawberries when they flew away from his hand and hovered teasingly in front of his eyes. Finn had never been accused of being a genius but he was more than able to work out what was going on. Only one person he knew would mess with him at a time like that.

"Aunt Tilda, give me those back." he sighed at the empty patch of air in front of him. After a second a grinning face materialized behind the strawberries.

"You look sad, like dude. Just trying to turn that frown upside down. Hehe. Like me, if I get sad I literally just turn upside down. You should try it."

That was all the warning he had before she grabbed him and they were upside down in the air, Finn dangling by his ankles like a giant ragdoll.

"Tilda! Put me down!"

"Never! You're my little human now, I'll fly around with you aaaaaallll night and we can go check out how badly sick your Mama gets in the morning when she discovers your bed's empty. Maybe see if your Mom actually cries and ruins her make up because she's so worried about you. That was your plan, right?"

"No. You know it wasn't." Finn replied sulkily, still flailing in the air trying to free himself. Tilda let go of his ankles and he fell almost all the way back to the ground before she grabbed him again, face a couple of inches above the picnic blanket.

"Oh sorry, you were running off in the middle of the night on a stolen eagle with your Mama's sworn enemy's daughter. I just assumed you were on a crusade to hurt your mothers."

"Shut up." Finn muttered.

"Why? Truth hurt, little Princeling?"

Finn could have argued but he knew in his heart of hearts that Matilda had a good point and she was only trying to look out for him in her own annoying way.

"Yeah. The truth kinda hurts. I guess not as much as it would hurt Mom or Mama if they found me like this." he sighed.

"Look, I'm all for forbidden love. Did I ever tell you about how me and Zoe used to sneak off into the forest and get naked together every night? That was absolutely amazing. And you know what? It was almost worth getting caught. Almost, but not quite. Not when the humans got hold of me, not when Zoe had to hurt her own family for me. Because they hurt us, beat us, did terrible things to us. Because the thing about forbidden love, little man, is that's it's _forbidden._ I'm not suggesting that your family would do to you any of the vile things the Tribe did to us. But I can't imagine they'd bake you a cake for it either. So just, think about what you're doing. Ok?"

"You saw that, huh?" he asked dejectedly.

"Saw you sneak out, saw you steal the eagle, saw you creep to the one place in all the Kingdoms you're forbidden from going, saw you screw up with a girl you like. Felt pretty bad for you, if it's any consolation. Protip for talking to women, Finn. Even if you think their parents are super creepy you never tell them so on the first date. Ok?"

She put him down gently and set about gathering up the failed picnic. Finn was staring down at his feet glumly, twisting his hair through his fingers in the same gesture of unconscious distress that Marceline did.

"Aunt Tilda? Does love always hurt?" he asked her quietly as she packed the last of the uneaten food into the hamper and folded the blanket.

"Pretty much, yeah. If it's worth having. Pain is the price you pay for loving people. But listen to me, Finn. Sometimes you can really like someone but because of reasons and loyalties you know it would be wrong to pursue it. But there's nothing to stop you loving them at a distance, or even being their friend. You just have to have faith in your self-control. You can love someone, quietly and mostly secretly, for years. Just be aware that if you do that it might stop you from loving someone else, someone more appropriate who might make you happier. Or perhaps you're one of those lucky people who can love more than one person at a time. But either way you have to decide if it's worth letting those feelings blossom knowing they're likely never going to feel the same. It's your decision, little man. Come on, you should get home. Big day tomorrow."

"What's happening tomorrow?" Finn asked Tilda as she swept down again and picked him up much more gently, flying him back towards the palace at a sedate speed.

"Princess Day. Or, to be more accurate, your sister's first Princess Day. And you're going with her, you and Jake are gonna chaperone her. Your Mama has a stress migraine and you know your Mom won't leave her side when she's sick. Guess you missed that she was getting ill while you were busy stealing her eagle. But someone needs to go to represent the Kingdom and Phoebe's old enough now. So you get to go too and hang out with a load of pretty and mostly single princesses. Maybe get over your Victoria sads. Sounds plan shaped?" she replied with a crooked grin.

"Yeah, I guess. Sucks that Mama has to miss it though." Finn said softly. "Hey, Tilda? Who is it that you love but can't tell?"

"Who says I was talking about me?"

"You were. I know you, your mouth goes all funny when you try to lie. Is it someone I know? Is it Uncle Stefan?"

"Stefan? Oh man, Finn! That'd be one hell of a weird combination. No, it's not Stefan. And it's not love, either. Just, I dunno, feelings. There's this little spark between us when we talk, we get each other. Like, I know we could be good together and have a lot of fun but she's got her loyalties and I've got mine so I've never even mentioned it to her. Gotta be loyal before you have fun. You understand?"

"Not really?"

"Well then you're getting it about as well as I am, little guy."

They touched down on Finn's private balcony and his aunt put him down gently.

"Off to bed tiny man, it's very late and you have a lot to do tomorrow. I'll put this stuff away. Try not to brood, ok? It's for the best if you don't see the Ice Princess again. Morrow'll find his way home, don't worry about him."

She nodded to him and turned to fly off into the night, but he called her name and she stopped, twisting in the air and avoiding his eye very carefully. Finn got the impression that Matilda had let slip more than she'd meant to about her mysterious crush.

"Matilda?"

"Yeah?

"I hope she doesn't end up hurting you, whoever she is."

"Me too, little man. Now go to bed."

He followed her advice and went to bed, still feeling pretty crappy but a little more at peace with how the night had gone. Finn didn't stop to wonder how his Aunt Tilda knew his Mama was sick with a migraine despite her having gone to bed perfectly healthy that night. He was too busy worrying about Victoria, worrying about having to chaperone his sister at Princess Day and worrying that he might just be the biggest idiot in the world for sneaking out against the express wishes of his entire family. But he didn't regret it, despite Matilda's warning he still wanted to get to know the Ice Princess better. The last thing he thought before sleep pulled him under was that her lips looked like blackcurrant ice cream, that he wanted to find out if her kisses really were as sweet as he hoped.


	20. Chapter 20

**As ever, my apologies for the delay. It's been a while since I saw Princess Day and there was a fair bit of research needed for this chapter. But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out anyway, even if it is a bit longer than usual.**

 **Content Warning: Theft! Illness! Human emotions! Aggravated nuisances! And a little bit of remembered darkness and backstory at the end.**

* * *

The next morning found a figure making painfully slow progress along the corridor, leaning against the wall for support but jaw set in lines of absolute determination. Every step was agony but she was certain she'd feel better soon, so long as she could make it down to breakfast. A familiar voice from above make her jump and almost topple over onto the rug.

"Bon, what are you doing? Get back to bed, you can barely stand."

"I feel a lot better this morning."

"No you don't. Come on honey, we talked about this. Phoebe can handle it and she'll have her brothers there for backup. But you're too sick for Princess Day, you need to rest."

Bonnie wanted to argue but the pulse of agony in her head was intensifying and for one horrifying second dizziness overcame her and she lost her balance completely. Before she could hit the ground strong cold arms were circling her and the centuries familiar sensation of floating replaced the dizziness, although the world still spun crazily when she tried to open her eyes. Defeated, she rested her head against her wife's cold shoulder and fought down the wave of nausea that accompanied the agony.

"Seriously, babe. You're gonna hurt yourself." Marceline told her gently, already drifting them backwards towards their bedroom. She'd only made it halfway down the hall anyway and that had taken ages. Yeah, probably she was too ill to go anywhere.

"Ok." Bonnie relented when it became obvious she wasn't going to be able to sneak past her wife. "But you can go with them too, right? Make sure they're safe."

"And leave you here all alone when you're sick? Not a chance. Babe, they're nearly grown. Jake's already grown. Besides, Phoebe's so excited, you should just see her."

"Wish I could." Bonnie mumbled as she was gently placed back into bed and the blankets were tugged up around her shoulders.

"I know. But if you rest up today and take it real easy you might feel well enough to come down to the study tonight for a while. And you can get all the royal gossip direct, I'm sure Firefly won't be able to shut up about it for weeks anyway. I'm gonna go see the kids off and I'll be right back, ok?" Marcy told her quietly, sliding one cold hand across her fevered forehead to try to bring some relief to the aching pain. Bonnie sighed and leaned into her touch.

"Ok. Thanks for looking after me."

Marcy pressed a gentle kiss to her wife's forehead before drifting silently from the room, sighing quietly to herself. She hated when Bonnie got sick, hated that despite their initial hopes her migraines hadn't become any less frequent as the years went by. And now she was going to miss a very important royal event that she'd spent weeks preparing for, it was just good luck that Phoebe was old enough to go instead. At only seventeen she was still below the age of majority though. It would be another year before she was old enough to attend in her own right and another four before she was legally free of any form of parental control. Marcy sighed again, a little nostalgically. She was busy remembering the tiny bundle of blue flames that had curled up and fallen asleep in her arms on the flight home from the Fire Kingdom more than fifteen years earlier. So it took her a couple of seconds longer than usual to pick up the sound of slightly raised voices echoing up from the main entrance hall; she swept down the stairs curiously towards the noise.

"-telling you we didn't order any weaponry! Not from you or anyone! We have plenty of excellent armourers and smiths in our own Kingdom, why would we ask the goblins to make anything?"

"I've got the order form right here with the royal Candy-Vampire stamp on it! Goblins make the best of everything, even a sugar brained goon like you should know that! And I'm telling you, little man, that I'm only gonna deliver this custom-made and finest quality item to a member of the royal family! Not some dumb little candy in a sailor suit!"

"Excuse me? This is a butler's uniform! And I am the royal chief of staff and Queen Bubblegum's personal assistant, I'll thank you to keep your tone respectful when you address me, boy!"

"Is there a problem, Peps?" Marcy interrupted them. She landed with a click of red boots on polished stone and looked around to the young goblin apprentice who was holding a suspiciously large long package wrapped in brown paper.

"Your Majesty, please inform this hooligan that we have not ordered any weapons from his master's workshop!" Peppermint begged, looking like he was about to pull chunks out of himself in frustration. Marcy sympathised, she knew how hard arguing with goblins was. Once they got an idea into their heads they went with it no matter what, it was no secret that their monarchy was completely donked because of it.

"Ahem, your Majesty. As per specification, your custom made replica axe. It comes with a hundred year wear and tear warranty, a certificate of authenticity and the highest guarantee of quality our workshops can offer." the goblin interrupted. He elbowed Peps out of the way and bowed low before her, holding up the package. Marceline frowned harder and grabbed it, ripping the paper off to discover that she was holding an almost exact replica of her own demon axe. It was identical, right down to the grain of the leather wrapped around the grip. Except for the lack of strings or pickups, any kind of customization at all to turn it from a deadly weapon into a bass guitar. She stared at it, speechless for a moment, before her still sluggish brain caught up and she figured out who must have ordered it. With a scowl dark enough to rival thunderclouds she cast a look up at the ceiling and the bedrooms above. He'd been suspiciously quiet that morning but she'd figured it was just usual teenage boy exhaustion. Well now he was about to wake up in a much less gentle way than usual. Marcy sucked in a breath, the better to make her voice heard through several floors.

"FINN MERTENS ABADEER! GET YOUR BUTT DOWNSTAIRS THIS INSTANT!"

...

"You're an idiot." Phoebe informed her little brother for what felt like the millionth time that morning.

"An idiot with a kick ass axe." he corrected her with a tired grin. Phoebe narrowed her eyes suspiciously but she really didn't want to know what her sixteen year old brother had been doing all night instead of sleeping so she didn't ask; it was probably something disgusting.

"You've only got a stupid axe because Mom let you keep it! Because she's _Mom_ and you're her little tiny blue-eyed baby boy and she'd give you the moon if you asked for it. But don't think for one second that she's happy about you getting that thing. If Mama was well it'd be getting melted down right now." Phoebe grouched.

"Jealous?" Finn grinned back at her.

"Not even a bit. I think you're the stupidest boy in the world."

"Well you're-"

What Phoebe was or wasn't they never found out because at that second Jake's magically stretched ears wrapped around both of their mouths, clamping them shut and preventing further bickering.

"If you two don't shut up and stop arguing I'm gonna lock you in LSP's treehouse and call Miss Trunks to come babysit like you were still a couple of toddlers, put on a nice dress and go to Princess Day as our parents' representative myself. Ok?" he told them as he strode across the landscape on huge stretched legs. Phoebe and Finn were perched on his back, they shared a silent eye roll.

"Finn, you're a butt and you need to get an identity of your own instead of just copying Mom. You're too old to try to be her, it's weird. And Phoebe, you're not his mother, let him make his own mistakes. Both of you just, just chill out some, ok? Look, LSP's waiting for us already, you made us late." he added as they approached the treehouse.

"Whatever nerds, I didn't even want to be on time anyway." she drawled when they came within earshot. Finn's eyes went wide and he struggled against his ear-gag until Jake reluctantly freed his mouth.

"Woah, cool ride! Where'd you get it?" he breathed as he gazed down on her lumpy purple car.

"Like, my parents sent it over from Lumpy Space because I'm so awesome, or whatever. Come on already or we're gonna be late for our stylishly late entrance."

As his siblings jumped down from his back Jake shrunk back to his regular size and immediately flung himself into the front passenger seat.

"No way, Dogbreath! I already called shotgun." Phoebe informed him smugly. Jake shrugged and jumped over onto the backseat next to Finn who was proudly polishing his axe.

"You're gonna wear the shine off that thing." Jake told him with a shake of his head.

"Look, it's a totally math weapon. Mom only uses hers for playing music but I know she's fought off hundreds of enemies with it. I'd be stupid not to want an axe as good as that, right? Come on bro, this is gonna be brilliant for heroing!" Finn told him with a winsome smile.

"It is pretty cool." Jake agreed reluctantly.

Next second Phoebe slid into the front in Jake's place and LSP floored the accelerator. The car shot off across the grass, hovering a fraction of an inch off the ground and turning their journey from fully bone-shattering to just, well, lumpy. Nobody made suspension like the mechanics in Lumpy Space. It was only about a half hour drive to the borders of Breakfast Kingdom at the speeds LSP drove at; before long they were pulling up at the Breakfast Palace and showing their passports to the Syrup Guards.

"Mama's still mad that the Breakfast Kingdom ripped off her palace design." Phoebe muttered to LSP as she parked the car. "I heard Breakfast Princess fancies herself as a total babe but so far she hasn't even managed to attract that weird old pervert Ice King. Turtle Princess said that last time she hosted Princess Pot Luck Breakfast Princess spent all her time trying to flirt with him and he told her to leave him alone, that she wasn't special enough to be a step mother to his precious little Victoria. Have you even met the Ice Princess? Urgh, she's so weird!"

"Yeah, like, who'd want Ice King for a Dad?" LSP agreed.

"Victoria's really nice, and you shouldn't be mean about someone else's parents." Finn interrupted loudly with a scowl. "She didn't ask for him to be her Dad and he's the only parent she has and you're both being super mean."

"Whatever, suck up. You're just trying to be a good little prince because you screwed up this morning. Besides, you boys can't come in with us. You gotta wait outside in the guest chamber, I'll see you when we break for lunch." Phoebe told them importantly.

She took LSP's arm and swept off into the main hall of the palace, leaving Finn and Jake to shrug to each other outside.

"So we just, wait out here?" Finn asked sceptically.

"Yeah man, that's what being a chaperone is all about. I brought a book." Jake replied, patting his chest where he'd stretched a furry pocket. He pulled out a copy of the Rainicornicopia and immediately sat down on the floor and began reading. Finn stared around, already bored. His eyes narrowed as a bright blaze of light entered the hall behind them

"Jake." he hissed, "there are Flame People here."

"So?" his brother asked, not looking up from his book.

"So Phoebe's in there alone and she doesn't know there are other Flame People around!" Finn replied in a voice full of panic.

"Dude, she's gonna meet them eventually. And surrounded by all her princess friends at a big social event like this is probably the best time. Let her handle it, she won't thank you for barging in and trying to hero her anyway." Jake sighed.

"But-"

"Finn, leave it. We're right outside if she needs us. Just let Phoebe deal with her own biz, you get enough time alone with Betty learning how to human and I still have to put up with Aunt Maureen once a month. It'll be good for her to meet other Flame People."

Finn sat down, visibly sulking, and tried to occupy himself by stretching into the relaxed beginning pose Mama used for her yoga. He was asleep against his brother's stretched pillow-shoulder before he'd finished counting his twenty slow deep breaths.

...

"You're not even a proper princess and you weren't even invited today! You gatecrashed! Your Kingdom doesn't trade with anyone and you're just a weird bum living in a cave!"

"Fine! I don't need you losers anyway! Come on, Gunther!"

It was the slamming of the main door that jerked Finn out of his nap. Jake was still snoring next to him, he'd made it all of fourteen pages into his dumb Rainicorn book before he too had succumbed to sleep. Angry feet were hurrying down the corridor towards them and Finn leapt up, determined not to be caught unawares. He almost bumped into the very last person he'd expected to see.

"Victoria?" Finn asked quietly, blinking stupidly and wondering if maybe he was having another one of _those_ dreams, the awkward embarrassing ones that he'd been far too mortified to tell his mothers about but Uncle Stefan had quietly helped him wash his bedsheets after and reassured him it happened to all boys and he'd tell nobody, ever.

"F-Finn." she gulped, obviously fighting back tears. "I, um, hey. Do y-you wanna get some air?"

And then she was crying and he was leading her off by the arm, out to the courtyard and away from where Jake was still snoring into his book without a backwards glance.

"What happened?" he asked her gently, helping her into a seat beneath an ornamental maple tree in the courtyard.

"I wanted to see the world and I knew Dad was sending Gunther as his representative to Princess Day so I snuck out and came too. It's really warm here but everyone is so rude! And they said such horrible things about Dad, Finn you were right. He is a weird creep and so am I. I must be, right? Everyone says so." Victoria said in a quiet voice, staring at her hands. For a second he was distracted by watching how the tears rolling down her cheeks turned to snowflakes halfway down and drifted into a small flurry in her lap. Then Finn remembered his etiquette training. He was a prince, a hero, most of all Betty was teaching him to be a gentleman. What would his Mom do? Well when Mama was upset about something Mom was always there with hugs and romantic junk, right? He could do that, too. Feeling brave and more than a little scared, feeling his pulse in weird places all over his body but determined to make her feel better, Finn slid his arms around Victoria's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. He pressed his lips against the silk of her hair and murmured reassuringly to her.

"You're not a creep. You're lovely and those stuck up bitches in there are the ones that nobody likes. Victoria, I'm really sorry I was rude to you last night. I just got a shock. I think you're one of the nicest people I know. You're funny and confident, intelligent and beautiful. Don't let anyone else tell you that you're worth less than them because that simply isn't true. I've been learning about human culture and one of the most important things is that humans should treat everyone the same, worthy of respect and dignity, because they're people and they got aspirations. We're all the same on the inside no matter what colour or shape we are. Y'know?"

Somewhere in the middle of his speech Finn felt like maybe he should stop talking, but he couldn't get his mouth to close and words were just spilling past his control, embarrassing words about his feelings and junk and how wonderful she was. When he did finally manage to clamp his jaws closed and stop the mortifying flood she was staring up at him with huge eyes, bluer than anything he'd ever seen before. It was like trying to look into the whole ocean at once, she was almost hypnotizing him with her gaze.

"You think I'm beautiful?" Victoria asked a little breathily.

"Like, more beautiful than anyone else." he replied, still unable to look away.

"Finn? If I wanted you to kiss me, like a prince from a fairy tale, would you do it?"

"Anything my lady commands." he murmured courageously.

Her cool hands were gripping his arms and her lovely face was close to his, sweet breath ghosting against his lips as she tried to control her obvious anticipation. Finn's heart felt like it was going so fast it was vibrating, surely every vampire in the world could hear it, and there was a warm bright pulse of sensation filling his chest. He sat as still as a statue while she learned forwards until their lips were almost brushing.

"Kiss me." she commanded, and he couldn't have held back from it even if he'd wanted to.

No kiss was ever so beautiful, Victoria was certain. Eyes closed and sighing against his lips she relaxed against him, the feel of his muscles beneath her hands and his velvety lips on her own, just like a fairy tale. Her prince. All those years she'd laid in her bed and told her stuffed penguin toys in whispers about all the fun she'd have with her best friend Princess Fionna when she finally met her, and Fionna was real all along and even better than in the stories because she was a handsome and wonderful prince instead. Victoria knew then that dreams really did come true if she wished for them hard enough. Perhaps her fairy godmother had sent Finn to her after she'd heard how sad and lonely Victoria was that night when they'd sang together in the snow. She was a princess and princesses had fairy tale endings, it made perfect sense to her.

"OH MY GLOB, PHOEBE! YOUR GROSS BROTHER IS MAKING OUT WITH THE ICE PRINCESS BACK HERE!"

And that was LSP interrupting them with her usual amount of grace and tact. Finn leapt to his feet and stared around wildly. Phoebe and LSP were standing a little way off and staring at him with their mouths open; his sister's in horror and LSP's in malicious glee. Ever since he'd fended off her advances LSP was weirdly jealous of any other girl he kissed and in truth there had been a lot of girls. Finn opened his mouth to explain but before he could say a word a snowball whistled over his shoulder and hit LSP right between the eyes, closely followed by another one that floored Phoebe with a cry of pain. He turned, horrified, to discover that Victoria was hovering a foot off the ground with white ice magic wreathing her hands and silken hair waving around her head like an angry aura. Finn had no idea what to do; his parents were miles away and all he had was his new axe but he couldn't very well unsling that and hack at Victoria with it. He did the only thing he could think of; he grabbed her arm and ran, towing her behind him while Phoebe screeched in the background and LSP yelled for the Syrup Guards. Escape, they had to get away. That was all Finn was thinking. Already outside, he made for the only direction he knew lead out of the palace; back towards the place where LSP had parked her car with the few other vehicles that the royalty of Ooo possessed. But LSP still had her car keys; he couldn't use that for escape. Skidding to a halt with Victoria breathless by his side and the clunking sounds of heavily armed pursuing Syrup Guards at his back he dove into the first car he could see with a key still in the ignition and Victoria landed breathlessly next to him.

...

Marceline caught the phone on the first ring, wincing in sympathy at how horrible the loud noise must be for her wife's poor aching head.

"Hello?" she whispered down the line.

"Marceline? You better get your butt up here right now and sort your damn kids out! Ill-bred little vandals!"

"What happened? What did they do now?" she sighed softly, glancing back over her shoulder. Bonnie was still asleep though her brows were pulled together in pain.

"Your daughter got into a fight and your son and his girlfriend stole my car! There's syrup everywhere and your stupid chaperone was asleep the whole time! What are you idiots over there playing at? Raising your children to be-"

She hung up, she'd heard enough. Jake and Lady had stolen a car? That was so out of character she couldn't even begin to understand how it had happened. Phoebe being in a fight was more believable but she couldn't really see her daughter starting anything, more likely it was self-defence. Finn sleeping through it wasn't at all surprising. But Bonnie was still sick, Marceline couldn't think of going anywhere without her when it would only make her migraine worse with stress. She dithered for one second before an idea came. Closing her eyes she reached down within herself to her mental landscape, to the deep magical connection joining her to her lineage.

 _I need you two to go rescue the kids from a mob of angry Breakfast peeps, Jake stole a car and Phoebe started a fight. Please try to resolve it as quietly as possible, I don't want Bon to stress unnecessarily. Sorry to wake you, make it up to you later._

...

Finn was having a hard enough time keeping them from smashing into half hidden boulders buried in the sand dunes, he didn't have any head space to devote to trying to work out how to turn the radio down. Besides, it was exciting in a terrifying kinda way. They'd already listened to a few of his Mom's more famous heavier tracks along with a mix of music from across Ooo and he'd been surprised when Victoria had sang along, not terribly tunefully but enthusiastically enough to make him grin from ear to ear anyway. He was in trouble, he knew that. But he was gonna be in trouble either way, he might as well have fun with it while he could. And besides, the adrenaline was making him numb to the fear. There was just a crazy kind of excitement pumping through his body now. That and what he was certain was the deepest kind of love. Very suddenly Finn couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"I THINK I MIGHT BE A LITTLE BIT IN LOVE WITH YOU!"

"WHAT?"

"I SAID, I THINK I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!"

"OH! DO YOU WANNA BE MY BOYFRIEND?"

"YEAH! IF YOU WANT ME TO! IT'LL HAVE TO BE A SECRET THOUGH!"

"WHAT?"

"IT'LL HAVE TO BE SECRET!"

"YEAH, I KNOW!"

There were flashing lights and sirens behind them, _shit_ , did the Syrup Guards have cars, too? And even worse, the ground looked suspiciously short in front of them; either there was an unexpected hill ahead or a cliff. As they drew closer Finn stamped on the pedal he'd figured out was a brake and the car shuddered to a halt. The radio finally fell silent as the engine stalled and they could hear the crackling of a megaphone from the approaching Syrup cars.

"PRINCE FINN AND PRINCESS VICTORIA! STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW! WE ARE ARRESTING YOU FOR THEFT AND BEING AN AGGRIVATED NUISANCE! ANYTHING YOU CAN SAY WILL BE HELD ON YOUR – IN, UM, ON TOP OF- WAIT, NO THAT'S NOT IT-"

"JERRY, GIVE ME THE MEGAPHONE. IF YOU CAN'T REMEMBER YOUR LINES WHY DID YOU EVEN COME?"

The voices descended into confused squabbling with the crackle and screech of the megaphone being pulled between different hands. Finn looked down at the touch of cool skin against his own; Victoria had slid her hand into his.

"Let's just keep driving." she told him quietly. "It'll be like the human play you told me about. We'll die for love."

Yeah, that made a crazy kinda sense. He'd die for love, and then everyone would see he wasn't some stupid little kid after all. Like Romeo and Juliette. Finn nodded, resolved. Somewhere in the back of his brain something was screaming at him that he was doing something amazingly dumb but the surge of adrenaline and confidence filling him like lightning was much stronger. Victoria wanted him to do it, she wanted him to be her boyfriend. He'd have done anything for her if she just asked while she held his hand. He turned the key in the ignition again and the engine flared back to life, loud rock music accompanying it. The engine screamed as he floored the accelerator and Finn screamed too, a wordless noise full of reckless bravery and terror and elation, things he wasn't even sure he could name. And then the car shot out over the empty air and for one glorious second Finn felt like he was flying.

Abruptly the sensation was replaced by weightlessness, not the good kind of floaty feeling he got when flying with one of the vampires but the falling-to-your-stupid-stupid-death kind. Finn's scream became one hundred percent fear as he hurtled downwards towards the huge jagged rocks a hundred feet below. He closed his eyes, too cowardly to see death rushing up to meet him, and squeezed Victoria's hand tightly.

Just as suddenly as the fall had started it stopped and was replaced with the floating he was more accustomed to as someone grabbed both their arms and tugged them back up into the air. Finn opened his eyes and looked up into the very unimpressed face of his Aunt Zoe, shaded beneath a massive Vampire Guard cloak hood. A second later the now empty car hit the rocks and they were all thrown upwards with the force of the explosion. They landed in a dusty coughing heap on the edge of the cliff as the Syrup Guards were tumbling out of their vehicles.

"You're under arrest!" one of them screamed, rushing forwards. Zoe growled threateningly and he broke off with a whimper.

"It was an accident. They got scared and took the wrong car, right Finn?" she told the guards.

"Yeah. Uh, I thought I'd got into LSP's car. Sorry. Accident. Won't happen again." he mumbled breathlessly.

"It better hadn't." Breakfast Princess' voice floated out of the back of one of her Syrup Guard cars. Finn knew how to manage angry princesses, at least. He threw a quick wink to Victoria as he slid past Zoe, so his _girlfriend_ would know he wasn't really flirting with other women, and took Breakfast Princess' hand as she exited the car, slipping to his knees in contrition.

"Please accept my humblest apologies, your most fragrant and pretty of Majesties. It was a mistake and it won't happen again." he murmured, brushing a demure kiss across the back of her hand. Breakfast Princess giggled a little and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, how can I stay mad at you? Of course you're forgiven, you and your little friend. Now come on, you're missing the guest buffet." she replied with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks.

Zoe sighed to herself; Finn might not realise it but he didn't need axes or haircuts to make himself more like Marceline. He was so much her son it was almost painful, getting himself into trouble just for fun then charming his way out of it again. Tilda was at the Breakfast Palace smoothing everything over there and berating Jake for sleeping on the job and Phoebe was adamant that she was staying for the end of Princess Day. But Finn had been formally invited back, she couldn't stop him from going if he wanted to. Zoe shook her head in defeat.

"It would be my pleasure, milady." Finn was replying with his most charming smile. Breakfast Princess giggled again and Zoe had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. The egg and bacon woman might have pretentions of being just like Queen Bubblegum but with an intellect that could be easily outsmarted by a charismatic sixteen year old she wasn't going to get far.

"I'll take you back to the Breakfast Palace and explain to your parents that it was all a misunderstanding then." Zoe sighed in defeat. "You, Victoria, are going home. We'll pick up your penguin and I'll fly you both back. Agreed?"

The girl looked like she going to argue but at a glance from Finn she shrugged. Zoe wondered what was going on between the two of them and if there was more than just the usual teenage recklessness of first love. For just one second she was seeing herself, still human and catching a subtle look from Matilda as she agreed timidly to show her where their Tribe gathered mushrooms. They were going to make a joining feast for Matilda's marriage to her brother at sunrise the next morning. They'd immediately been able to read each other's faces with the barest glance, too. Perhaps the Tribe had used the feast for Brandon's funeral instead; they'd not lingered long enough to see if he was discovered before he bled to death that night as he lay on the forest floor with his own hunting knife buried deeply in his throat. Zoe shivered at the memory, shoved it away from herself. If Finn and Victoria had the kind of instant and irreversible soul-bond that she had with Matilda then she would fight to the death for their happiness. Nothing in the world was stronger for a human than love, she should know. Zoe made up her mind. She wasn't going to do anything to cause them to be torn from each other.

"Come on then, Victoria. I'll take you home."


	21. Chapter 21

**At this point I'm sure you're aware of my standard apology procedure. I'm sorry I haven't updated this for ages, I've got a ton of projects on the go. But we are drawing towards the end of this particular story and I'm going to write the whole of Full Circle before I begin posting it. With Continuum I posted each chapter as I wrote it but that was an experiment with my writing style and I prefer to write the whole story, proof it all in one go and then post. So there may be a delay before Full Circle begins but it will be regular once it does start. As ever, my apologies.**

 **The names 'Daven' and 'Enya' are not canon but they both have connections with fire and brightness. Google 'meaning of name Daven' and you'll probably see why I picked it. FYI, 'Phoebe' means 'bright and shining'. She's got some interesting backstory in Greek mythology too. The more you know.**

 **Content Warning: plot, plot setup for Full Circle, hints of darkness to come, shameless abuse of the Cosmic Owl trope.**

* * *

"Firefly-"

"No. Don't even try to talk to me, Finn. I've got nothing to say to you."

"Please, I'm sorry!"

"For which bit? For your stupid girlfriend attacking me? For completely ruining my first real Princess event? For getting us all in trouble and almost causing a diplomatic incident?"

"All of it! I don't know what happened, I just sorta went a bit crazy."

"I know exactly what happened. You were thinking with your pants, like usual. And if Aunt Zoe and Aunt Tilda hadn't smoothed everything over you might be in jail in Breakfast Kingdom or dead right now. Jake was right, he should have left you at the treehouse with LSP's MO. If Mama finds out about exactly how much danger you were in- I don't even know what she'd do! Mom's mad as hell with you and Jake's really hurt you just ran off and left him, I don't even have words to tell you how angry I am."

"Firefly, please just listen. I am sorry. I absolutely didn't mean to hurt you or Jake or anyone! I just, I really like Victoria and I wanted to impress her and I thought the best way to keep you safe was to take her away from you because she didn't know how much ice could injure you, she's so innocent. Phoebe, she only knows what she's read about and she didn't mean to hurt anyone. We both just got scared. Didn't you ever get scared?" Finn pleaded with shining eyes.

Phoebe sighed and tried to avoid his gaze. So far she'd stayed quiet about what had happened to her and how terribly painful it had been to get hit in the chest with a snowball, she hadn't been wearing her Water Shield and even if she had the sheer coldness of the ice was agony. And there was more to it than just loyalty to her brother or the desire to avoid stressing her already sick mother. Phoebe hadn't told anyone about it because she wasn't sure at the time that it had meant anything. Now she knew it did.

"I sort of knew that something was gonna happen." Phoebe admitted quietly, staring into the flames of her bedroom fireplace. "I had this weird dream last night, I didn't know what it was at the time but I know now. It was the Cosmic Owl. In the dream I was wearing a thick cloak and I couldn't get the pin undone to take it off, and there was this other Flame Elemental, not anyone I'd seen before. He showed me how to undo the clip and take it off but when I did my flames went crazy and I saw the Ice Kingdom melt, I saw you and Victoria standing in the middle of the flames hugging on a tiny ice island. Then there was this huge sparkly owl and he said 'why's it always your family?' and then I woke up. I'm scared, Finn. Today I met the same Flame Elemental who took the cloak off me in the dream. He's my biological brother."

"You've gotta tell Mom and Mama, Firefly! A Cosmic Owl dream is super important!" Finn gasped.

"I know, but I don't wanna get you in trouble. I don't like her but I think you're supposed to be close to Victoria. What if we try to interfere and it all goes wrong?" Phoebe asked quietly. She sounded plenty calm but her flames still danced in agitation. Finn was reluctantly impressed; Phoebe had spent a lot of time with Mama having princess lessons recently, learning to control her voice and outward signs of emotion so she could start taking on some Royal Duties.

"I don't like it." Finn replied, thinking hard. "I don't like that there's weird dreams and stuff happening. I don't like that you're scared of your flames still or that there's some kinda unspoken tension going on with the adults. Haven't you noticed? I dunno what it is but Mama's sick more often these days and Tilda and Zoe come out through the day less, Stefan seems preoccupied. And what did the Cosmic Owl mean, it's always our family? Who else in our family had a Cosmic Owl dream and why wouldn't they tell us?"

"I don't know. I just, I want to meet Daven again. He's not what you think, Finn. He's kind and not even really evil, he just came out of the military and he wanted to meet me, that's why he was chaperoning Enya. She's my sister, she'd only seven. I have a _sister_ , and other Flame family. I know why our mothers kept me away from the Flame Kingdom, I know it was to keep me safe. But I want to get to know them. Wouldn't you wanna meet your human family if you had the chance?" she asked.

"My human family are all dead. They must be." Finn replied. "And I dunno, humans seem pretty fucked up. All the stories I've ever heard are about how humans messed up the planet. Even Betty admitted that a lot of ancient human culture was harmful and toxic. They had to invent a whole social justice movement just to tell people it wasn't ok to treat women like crap. I wanna change that, if I'm an ambassador for a new sort of human then I'm gonna be a better one. We're gonna be the species that doesn't kill things just for fun or poison the air and water or start huge pointless wars. Did you know humans invented slavery? And they treated each other worse than criminals just because of their colours! Can you imagine treating someone like they didn't have feelings just because of their _colour_?"

"Flame Elementals aren't exactly innocent either. But I think I remember Daven, just. He said he used to sit by my lamp and read to me when I was small, that he begged our father to let me out to play with him. Do you think Mom and Mama are gonna be mad if I keep meeting him?"

"I dunno, Firefly. But if the Cosmic Owl is involved I think you gotta. So I'll cover for you meeting Daven if you'll cover for me meeting Victoria. Yeah?" Finn asked.

"Deal. You're the best little brother, you know? I just want you to know that no matter how close I get to my biological brother, you're always my family."

She hugged him, wrapping her arms protectively around his shoulders. Nobody really talked about it but everyone in the family treated Finn just a little differently, because he was an endangered species and he was so fragile compared to the rest of them. He didn't heal quickly, he wasn't strong and he wasn't going to live so long. They needed to look after him and Finn sometimes made that difficult. At least if Phoebe knew about it she could help him see his girlfriend safely and not get into any danger, she thought. Nobody was hurting her little brother, not on her watch. If that meant putting up with the Ice Princess then that's what she'd do.

...

 _A voice like honey, a voice full of longing. Like two halves of herself ripping at each other, like she'd be pulled apart by it. And knowing that there was someone she had to stay whole for, someone whose only crime in all of it was just to exist. Someone she'd kill and die for, no matter what. No deeper loyalty._

 _"_ _I've wanted to show you this for so long."_

 _Colours all around her and filling her vision, reds and golds and pinks and blues. Colours that she hadn't fully seen for centuries. It was more beautiful than anything she'd seen in all her long years. But there was also pain, so much pain. Like a burning through her body, like her heart was pumping poison through her. Wait, her heart? It was thumping away in her chest, alive and human, she was warm and peach-skinned, she breathed and lived._

 _And so far below that they looked like ants the remnants of a tiny arm stood on a hill surrounded by a dark tide, almost overwhelmed by it. At first it looked like black water; then the scent hit her nose and the pain in her stomach redoubled._

 _Blood. So much blood it was black instead of red. A scream she hadn't heard in centuries ripped the air, a scream of pure soul-deep loss, grief, fury. A scream that promised death; because the Queen had finally taken the field again after all those centuries of swearing off war. Someone was dead. Someone else was going to die._

 _"_ _What does it all mean? What's coming? It's something bad. Someone's gonna get hurt. Aren't they? She's gonna kill people." a voice hooted into her ear._

 _She looked around, into the anxious spherical face of the Cosmic Owl._

 _"_ _I don't know." she replied, confused. "Shouldn't you know? You're showing me, you tell me what it means."_

 _"_ _I know as much as you do. But I think it means something is going to happen, it means something for all of us." the owl replied, frowning as much as a bird made from starlight could. Then he clapped his wings and the vision faded._

The words were already on her lips as she opened her eyes and turned over, shaking her lover awake in a panic.

"Zoe, we've gotta go back to the Citadel. Something's gonna happen, I had a dream. We've gotta go as soon as we can, we've gotta go right now. Someone's gonna die."

"Tilda? It's the middle of the day, what do you mean we've gotta go back? Who's gonna die? I don't understand." Zoe murmured, opening her eyes and frowning around at Matilda.

"Do you remember the night in the forest? When we ran away. I asked you to trust me, Zoe. I need you to do that again now. I saw the Cosmic Owl and I saw the rebels of the Citadel again and I heard Marceline scream. Someone died. And she wasn't taking it well. We've gotta go back to the Citadel, I don't know why but we gotta. And we can't tell anyone. Please? I need you to come with me, Zoe. I can't do this alone."

She looked deeply into Matilda's troubled eyes, searching them for a moment exactly like she had that night when they'd ran. There was truth in the redhead's gaze, and fear. There wasn't a hint that anything was being withheld, that Matilda has any boundaries with her at all. They were one mind, one love. So if Matilda was going then Zoe was, too. She could hear her lover's voice from nine hundred years earlier echoing in her brain.

 _"_ _I can't let him take me, Zoe. I can't bear thinking of him even touching me. We have to run away. Please, come with me. I can't do this alone. I love you more than anything, more than my family. I just want to be with you. You know what they'll do if they catch us together like this. Please, Zoe. Come away with me."_

And they'd ran. And they all knew how that had turned out. But nothing and nobody could change Tilda's mind when she was set on something. She always got her way in the end. So Zoe nodded her agreement. They'd go in the day when nobody expected them to leave.

"What about Stefan?" Zoe asked quietly.

"He'll understand. Someone has to stay with the Queen and the royal family."

Zoe looked around their room as she packed, wondering how long it would be before she'd see it again. Weeks? Years? Centuries? Perhaps never. It had been her home for fifteen years, safe and secure, comfortable to the point of luxury after the burnt out ruin of the Citadel that they'd patiently waited in for centuries, waiting to see if their Queen would return. In a twisted way those were the best years of their lives, just the two of them alone together and so in love. They hadn't needed anything else. But still underneath their happiness was the constant craving to be close to their Sire, their Queen. She was out there, somewhere. They'd have known if she was dead. And one day she'd come for them, summon them, they'd be reunited any day now. And 'any day now' had lasted for centuries.

With one last wistful glance around their home Zoe shouldered her backpack, pulled the hood of her cloak far over her face to shield her delicate skin from the sun and followed Matilda out of the door. She'd follow Matilda forever, anywhere.

...

It was Phoebe who found the note. She'd needed to tell someone, someone who wouldn't explode in righteous parental anger. So the day after her talk with Finn she crept to her Aunts' room, intent on asking for their advice because they always knew how to help and Zoe had already covered for Finn and Victoria. There was no reply when she knocked on their door though and that was unusual.

"Aunt Zoe? It's Phoebe, may I come in?"

Still no reply. Suddenly worried about more than just her dream Phoebe reached for the handle and reluctantly opened the door. The room was empty, the bed was stripped and sheets neatly folded with a note on top. It had her Mom's name written on it in Matilda's wide, round hand. Phoebe ran all the way to the music room.

"MOM!"

Marceline met her at the door, already dropping the banjo she'd been tuning and rushing out into the corridor to wrap her daughter in a protective hug.

"What is it, Phoebe? What's wrong? Darling, are you hurt?" Marcy asked in concern, scanning her daughter's face anxiously.

"No, I'm fine. But I don't think Matilda and Zoe are." Phoebe replied in a rush, holding out the letter.

"Something wrong with the Vampire Guards?"

Olgar's head popped up over Marceline's shoulder, he must have come by for another banjo lesson.

"Uncle Olgar! Yeah, their room's empty and everything's put away like they're not coming back for a while. Is Aunt Eagle here too? I just think it'd be good if we got as many allies around as possible, I have a bad feeling." Phoebe replied with a small shiver.

"She's in the library with your mother, Queen Bubblegum was feeling better this morning so she agreed to some light reading with your Aunt. Come here, Firefly." Olgar replied, opening his arms wide and wrapping her into another hug when she moved past her Mom to him. Olgar had always been Phoebe's favourite, he'd been a father figure to her when she was younger and he'd given Garm to her when the enormous fire wolf had just been an abandoned pup. "It'll be ok, child. Don't worry, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this. You don't think your favourite and handsomest uncle would let something awful happen, do you?

"Olgar, we're gonna have to summon the Honour Guard." Marceline told him seriously over the top of Phoebe's head. "I don't know what's going on exactly but Matilda writes here that she's gone to neutralise a 'threat'. For the sake of the Kingdom, I want you all close by just in case."

"I'll summon Billy and Canyon immediately." Olgar replied, letting go of Phoebe and sweeping off with a formal bow.

"Come on, Firefly. We need to call a council meeting." Marcy told her daughter, already floating them both off along the corridor to the library while Olgar hurried to the very top of the tower to borrow Morrow and fetch Billy. "Where's Jake? We'll need Lady to get a message to Emerald Rainicorn."

"I dunno, he was already out by the time I came down to breakfast." Phoebe replied.

"Never mind, your Mama has a crystal message device for just such emergencies, we'll find him soon enough. I don't want any of you wandering away from the palace until we know more. Where's Finn?"

 _Out with his girlfriend. Shit._

"He's out in town with some of his school buddies, I'll call him." Phoebe lied.

"Thanks, Firefly. I'm trusting you to round up your brothers, get them to meet us as soon as you can. Alright? We'll be in the study behind the throne room." Marceline replied, stopping outside Stefan's door and giving her daughter another worried hug.

Phoebe hurried off to her bedroom the second her Mom disappeared into Uncle Stefan's room. She grabbed her phone and dialled her younger brother but he didn't pick up, not that she'd really been expecting him to. Finn had been up since sunrise planning a surprise picnic for Victoria, since their last one had been a failure and he wanted to make it up to her. At least Phoebe knew where he was now. She slid on her Water Shield and leaned out of the window, whistling. Next second Garm came bounding around the corner, grinning up in her toothy lupine manner with her huge steaming tongue lolling out of one side of her mouth. The huge fire wolf was almost as tall as Phoebe herself, easily tall enough for riding on.

"Catch me, girl!" Phoebe commanded as she jumped from the window. Garm leapt up with a happy whine and caught her mistress in the softest mouth, almost like being wrapped in a warm hug by the enormous wolf. She placed Phoebe very carefully back on the ground and sniffed her hand excitedly for the little charcoal treats she knew the princess always carried for just such occasions.

"Wait for it." Phoebe commanded, and Garm sat down with an expectant expression on her face. Phoebe reached into her pocket and pulled out a treat, tossing it into the air and watching happily as the great wolf leaped for it. "Good girl! Come on, we gotta go interrupt Finn's date."

Phoebe leaped onto Garm's back and wound her hands into the solid blue flame fur, feeling the immense heat underneath that was held back by the Flame Shield.

"Cherrydrop Waterfall! Full speed!" Phoebe cried, and they bounded away so fast that their heat and speed warped the air around them.

...

Victoria hadn't been at all thrilled to see Phoebe and honestly Phoebe hadn't needed to see her brother with his gross tongue down the ice girl's throat _again_. But once she'd explained that Marceline had called them all home for hero business Finn agreed to go, kissing Victoria goodbye regretfully but promising to call her as soon as he could. He raced off on Garm's back, perched behind his sister with his shiny new axe glinting in the sunlight.

"What's going on?" Finn asked as they rode.

"Aunt Tilda and Aunt Zoe went away in the night to find some sorta threat and Mom's acting like the Lich himself is come back to murder us all in our beds. She's sent for Uncle Billy, and even Emerald Rainicorn." Phoebe replied.

"Emerald Rainicorn? _The_ Emerald Rainicorn who was a member of the Honour Guard and Lady's aunt? But she hasn't left the Crystal dimension since we were babies." Finn replied with an anxious frown. Whatever was happening must have his Mom really worried if she was recalling the whole Honour Guard.

"Yeah. I'm scared, Finn." Phoebe admitted, half turning to look him in the eye.

"Me too." he replied honestly. "Where's Jake?"

Before she could reply that she didn't know he was right beside them, galloping alongside on horse legs while Lady flew by his side.

"Jake! Did Mom call you?" Phoebe shouted across to him.

"Nah, I just knew I needed to come home. Besides I've got some stuff to talk to you guys about." he replied. Next second they were speeding along the main street of the town leading up to the palace and Jake was forced to shrink almost paper thin to avoid crashing into surprised Candy folk. Garm just leaped clear over their heads, panting happily at the exercise. They pulled up in the courtyard and Jake caught Finn when he tumbled down from the wolf's back.

"Thanks, bro. Where do we need to be?" he asked, looking around to his sister who dismounted much more gracefully.

"The throne room study, Mama's holding a meeting." Phoebe replied. Lady said something in Korean and Jake nodded seriously; she wasn't wearing a translator.

"I know, honey. Let me handle it." he replied with a nod, hugging her briefly. "You know I'm not going anywhere without you though."

Finn and Phoebe exchanged a look but just shrugged and hurried up the steps into the main entrance hall with their brother and his partner right behind them. They arrived breathless at the door of the study, making both their mothers look up in surprise. That's when Phoebe at least worked out what must be going on, because nobody mortal ever surprise Mom. But she held her peace, it wasn't her place to spill anyone's secrets.

"I was beginning to worry, thank Grod." Bonnie sighed, standing and coming across to pull all three of them into a relieved hug. "We don't know where your Aunts have gone and Tilda's letter is frustratingly vague. Is there anything any of you three know that could help?"

Phoebe subtly stood on Finn's foot before he could open his mouth; they'd agreed last night that a Cosmic Owl dream wasn't anything to share with their parents for fear of making things worse. A prophecy was an uncertain thing, change it one way and it would find a must less predictable path to achieve its goal. It was like an intelligent being, it would do whatever it could to come true. Uncle Stefan missed it completely and that was Phoebe's next clue that she'd been right. He and her Mom were both still as statues, staring at Lady with unblinking eyes. They knew, she knew they knew. The Rainicorn bowed and nodded back, silently acknowledging it.

"We don't know what this threat is or how serious it might be. Matilda said she'd write more when they knew. Until we hear more from her I don't want anyone going far from the palace." Bonnie continued, echoing her wife from earlier. She cast a significant look to Finn who sighed and nodded reluctantly. Phoebe was more than clever enough to work out that their Mama hadn't banned his secret girlfriend from sneaking _into_ the palace though, just from him leaving it. She'd point that out to him later.

"Lady will need to stay, too." Marceline spoke up unexpectedly. "We need to protect the family."

"I thank you for your concern but I am fully capable of looking after myself." the Rainicorn replied with another small bow.

"It's not just your own safety I'm concerned about. Blood of my son is my family. So I'll politely request you stay and do not leave, not just for your own sake." Marceline said a little coolly. She'd never been as close friends with Lady as Bonnie had.

"As you wish, eomeonim. You rule in your Kingdom and as you point out, we are family now. I bow to your will."

"Wait. 'Eomeonim' means mother-in-law." Bonnie frowned at them. "Jake? Is there something you want to tell us?"

"This wasn't how I'd planned to break the news, Mama. I asked Lady to marry me and she said yes." he replied, almost a touch defensively.

"Oh Jakey, I'm so happy for you! Come here!" Bonnie smiled, wrapping him into another hug. "You two are so wonderful together, I know you'll be so happy."

"Tell her why, Jake." Marcy frowned. "You can't keep it a secret for long and if you don't tell her I will."

"Jake?" Bonnie asked in confusion, looking between her wife and her son.

"I am pregnant." Lady replied calmly.

There was deathly silence in the study, nobody spoke for a long minute.

"It was planned. We wanted to have a family." Jake finally said, sliding his arm around Lady's neck.

"Well. You certainly picked your moment, Jake." Bonnie replied a little shakily.

"This isn't ideal, I know. But I'm an adult, she's an adult and we're committed to each other. I love her. I know we'll need to marry for the sake of the succession if such a thing was ever needed, I did consider politics before we went ahead with our plans. But Mama, I'm happy. I want this. Aren't you happy for me?" he asked softly, eyes pleading.

Bonnie sucked in a breath, closed her eyes for a brief second and breathed out slowly, calmingly.

"I am happy for you, Jake. I just, it's a shock. Not a bad one. I'm glad you're happy and committed. Come here, both of you." she said, arms open to them. Jake gladly snuggled back into his Mama's arms and Lady consented to let her in-laws hug her too. Even Marceline hugged them and offered her congratulations.

"I don't disapprove of you. I just wasn't prepared for another woman to become more important to my son than me and his Mama." Marcy told Lady quietly. "Look after my grandchildren, Lady. You've got five passengers on board, three girls and two boys, I knew the moment I saw you. I can hear their heartbeats. They're all healthy and strong, eager to come explore the world. You know this means we'll have to summon my father too, he'll be as proud as a lion. I wish you every happiness."

"I love Jake very deeply, I wish to have his children and be his wife." Lady replied softly as they hugged.

"Good, then you and I will never have a problem with each other. Simply avoid hurting my firstborn and you will always be welcome in our family."

"I'd rather die than let anything happen to Jake or our puppies." Lady replied seriously.

Despite the worry and tension in the day the short notice engagement party they threw that evening was every bit as extravagant and wonderful as if it had been planned for weeks. Everyone was so busy congratulating the happy couple that for one night nobody was watching the skies, nobody noticed the first faint glimmer of a comet approaching.


	22. Chapter 22

**Oh. My. Grod. You guys, it's been like a _million years._ Arrrrgghh I'm so sorry! I accidentally took a small hiatus from writing this story and I am so freaking sorry. But! The ball is rolling again and I am gonna update frequently! I promise. I'm sorry. You guys forgive me? I hope so, look I wrote you an apology chapter. Seriously, I am sorry and I won't leave it this long again, I pinkie promise.**

 **A SHOUT OUT TO MY AWESOME PROOF READERS! You guys are amazing, wonderful, thoroughly _gorgeous_ (yes you are, we've been through this and you're not allowed to argue), magnificently angelic people! I give you aaaaaalll the squishy love hugs. *Squissssshhhhhh***

 **Content Warning: King of Ooo! The rat bastard. Self abuse! Penguin brain meats! Theft! Oh myyyyyy...**

* * *

Sometimes Phoebe wished her amazingly intelligent Mama had been just that little bit less worried about one of her creations outsmarting her and given the candy citizens fully functioning brains when she'd built them. The sun beat down over the central courtyard and she was staring back at a sea of dumb sugar faces turned towards her, expecting her to explain to them what the hell was going on. It cost her everything she had not to grit her teeth when she addressed them.

"But the election is legal, Princess!" a glazed donut shouted in confusion from the crowd.

"Only barely! And it's still stupid!" she replied, beginning to lose her temper despite her best intentions. Dammit, she shouldn't have to defend her parents like that!

"A barely legal and yet totally legal election! One in which I intend to prove myself the better and handsomer Princess."

That was the self-proclaimed King of Ooo and just hearing his smug, unctuous voice made Phoebe so mad she felt like her flames were going to burst out from behind her Shield. And then he winked jauntily at the crowd and she just _couldn't._

"My parents have served this kingdom faithfully for _years!_ My Mama even chewed her own hand off to escape from her kidnappers and save the kingdom when my brothers were just babies! And my Mom defeated the Lich and saved everyone! How many limbs did _you_ bite off for the candy people?" she snarled, rounding on him and letting loose a few curls of indigo flame in her rage. Rather than shaking with terror the crowd ooh'd and aah'd at her firework display.

"That's true!" a portly buttermint yelled excitedly. "I helped clean up the blood from Queen Bubblegum's study and fix the broken window after she was kidnapped! I used to be Starchy's assistant at the palace and I saw her _blood_ , it was all pink and gross!"

"And Queen Bubblegum's kids came to read at the orphanage I grew up in one time and her Dog son even told me I could be a princess if I wanted one day!" a cookie man added happily at the front of the crowd. He was wearing a foil crown on his head; Phoebe thought she remembered the day he was talking about. Her Mama had sent her and her brothers instead because it was a rare opportunity to spend time alone with Mom and the little cookie boy had told Jake he wanted to be a princess. Instead of laughing at him Jake had nodded solemnly and told him anything was possible if that was what he wanted. Dammit, she knew his name if she strained her memory.

"Baby Snaps, right?" she asked after a second's concentration. He blushed as much as cookie dough could and shuffled his feet in embarrassment.

"That's right, milady Princess. I, um, I'll be voting for your mothers." he replied shyly.

"I'm very glad to hear it, but there's not going to be an election." Phoebe told him, trying to keep a satisfied smirk off her face. "See, a monarchy is not a democracy. It's inherited. So if my mothers did pass away one day my brother Jake would inherit the throne and he'd be King. Don't you all want King Jake on the throne if you can't have my wonderful parents?"

There was a lot of nodding and muttering, Phoebe was sure she heard a few older candy teens giggling over how handsome Jake would look in a crown. They'd won; it was obvious. The smirk was back on her face and for the first time the King of Ooo was looking flustered.

"Who do you want on the throne?" she shouted to the crowd.

"Queen Bubblegum! Queen Marceline!" they responded joyfully.

"And who's a fraudulent usurper?" she added, gleeful at her victory.

"The King of Ooo!" the crowd chanted back.

"Is there gonna be an election?" Phoebe yelled.

"No!"

"Because?"

"A monarchy is not a democracy!"

"That's right!" she finished triumphantly. She turned to grin at the King of Ooo as the winsome smile slid from his face only to be replaced by an ugly glower.

"You've won this time, child. But I'll be back. The Candy Kingdom will be mine." he snarled at her before whirling on his heel and storming off through the jeering crowd. His squirrel Toronto spared enough time to stick his tongue out rudely at Phoebe before following.

Phoebe just sighed and shook her head at their retreating backs. It was sad really, that they'd let themselves be outsmarted by a teenage girl. The crowd in the town square were beginning to dissipate and go about their daily activities now that the entertainment of the election campaigning had been called to a premature halt. In fact Phoebe was a little annoyed that she had to campaign on her mothers' behalf at all. She cast a glance up to the tower she was standing beneath but there was too much distance for her to be able to make out anyone at the window. She frowned and sighed, her good mood beginning to melt when she remembered what was going on up in that tower. She hoped Mom would have more luck trying to convince Mama to take a break than she'd had.

...

"Babe, _please_. You have to rest, you need to eat and sleep." Marceline begged for the hundredth time. Her wife just shook her head distractedly and hunched a little further over the book she was scouring.

"Milady Queen, your wife is right."

That was Eagle Mask, also bent over her own book at the desk opposite while Olgar worriedly massaged her aching neck.

"Can't stop. Too much to research. There's a huge comet in the sky that shouldn't be there and I don't know why. Sleep can wait." Bonnie mumbled. Her eyes never left the pages she was scanning frantically. A second later she slammed the book closed with a frustrated growl, making everyone jump. "This is no good! I can't make out enough of the language it's written in, it was a dead language _before_ the Mushroom War. All I know for certain from this book is that the people who wrote it knew that comets appeared cyclically!"

Stefan drifted over and gently took the book from beneath her trembling pink fists. Bonnie sighed deeply again and let him peruse it. Her eyes were ringing in deep purple circles from exhaustion and she'd started shaking a little some hours ago. Marceline was worrying herself to death over it.

"It's Latin." Stefan announced after a long second. "I can translate it but it will take me some time. Your Majesty, you should rest while you can."

Marceline shot him a thankful glance over the tip of Bonnie's crown. She knew plenty well that Stefan could read Latin, he'd trained as a doctor long enough ago that most medical texts were still written in the ancient language. Once again they'd managed to carefully manoeuvre Bonnie into a position where she had no choice but to listen to them and care for herself. She sighed and knuckled her eyes tiredly.

"Fine. Fine, you win, I'll take a nap. But I want you to wake me the _instant_ you find anything. Agreed?" Bonnie sighed.

"Of course, Majesty." Stefan demurred, bowing low. Bonnie frowned at him, unsure if she was being made fun of, but in the end her exhaustion won out and she consented to let Marceline wrap her in cool arms and float with her out into the corridor then up to their bedroom.

"What do you think the comet means?" Bonnie asked sleepily.

"I don't know. Nothing good, probably. But we'll work it out, babe." Marcy replied as they drifted along the hall together. "We always do. I believe in you."

Bonnie wanted to reply that she was so glad Marcy believed in her, that she was terrified because she didn't know what the comet meant, that she was so scared this crap with the King of Ooo was going to resurface and donk everything up. But her eyes were sliding closed against her will and she wasn't sure if the words made it out of her mouth or if they just echoed distantly in her mind. She was barely conscious of cool lips pressed lovingly against her forehead as she was gently lowered into soft bed sheets. Bonnie was deeply asleep before her wife was even out of the room.

Marceline held in her sigh until she was back along the corridor and well out of Bonnibel's earshot. Her wife was on one of her self-destructive cycles of neglecting herself for the sake of her work and it was almost impossible to get her to rest for long. Three weeks had passed and they were still no closer to working out what the hell was going on with the growing threat in the sky. Helplessness boiled through her; if she could she'd have taken her wife's exhaustion and frustration and lent her strength instead. It was torturous to watch Bonnie suffer and be unable to do more than bring her mug after mug of chamomile tea that the pink woman ignored until it grew cold.

"Anything?" she asked hopefully as she re-entered the study. Stefan shook his head, still frowning down at the Latin book.

"This is a reprint of a much more ancient text. It's simply an account of notable comets that the scholars of the day were aware of. Nothing in here matches our mystery comet so far as I can tell." he replied morosely.

"I want to know more about this threat the vampire women left to investigate. I don't like that we don't know what it is, I don't think this comet appearing is just coincidence." Olgar growled from the corner. He was sharpening his broadsword sullenly; book learning had never been his strong suit. But he could neither bluster the comet into submission nor leap into the sky and hack it to pieces so he was every bit as helpless as everyone else and that was beginning to make the big Viking's veins boil with frustration.

But there was nothing anyone could do more than they already were. With a weary sigh Marceline dropped into Bonnie's vacant seat and pulled yet another dusty book towards herself, opening it with tired eyes already strained from hours of reading.

…

"WENK!"

"Gunts, quiet!"

"WENK WENK!"

"Victoria? What are you doing?"

"Nothing, Dad! Just sitting outside."

Her father's head appeared around the entrance to the Ice Fort and he narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. Victoria tried to smile reassuringly at him.

"You were gone last week." he continued. "And I looked everywhere, I sent the penguins to find you. You didn't disobey my orders and leave the kingdom did you?"

"No, Dad. I was walking in the foothills and I got tired so I built an igloo to take a nap in. You must have gone past me." Victoria lied awkwardly. Gunther was glaring at her as much as a penguin could but her father just sighed and shook his head.

"You're getting so big now, I can't keep you here forever. Just, please make sure you look after yourself, darling. You're the only daughter I've got." he told her solemnly.

"I'm always careful, Dad. I just like going for walks." she told him softly. Explaining that she'd been sneaking out for weeks and engaging in clandestine make out sessions with the youngest Candy-Vampire prince was more than Victoria thought her father could deal with hearing right then.

She seated herself on a broken ice pillar and pulled out a book, pretending to read until he went back inside muttering to himself. Out of the corner of her eye she could still see Gunther watching her suspiciously. Victoria counted to a hundred under her breath before she turned to him, glaring.

"You shut right up, Gunther. I'm going to see Finn and if you yell for Dad again I'll turn you into a penguin popsicle." Victoria hissed furiously. He glared back and put his wings on his hips defiantly.

" _Wenk._ "

"Yeah? Well you can just take your opinion and shove it! I'm going to see my boyfriend and you just try to stop me!"

Next second she was up and running, heart hammering as she dashed through snow banks and down frozen slopes full of permanently frosted fir trees. Gunther was following at a mad dash and hooting furiously, leaping over the odd snowball she shot behind herself as she escaped. Almost at the edge of the cliff; she could use her ice magic to float down to the valley floor below where Gunther couldn't follow. Victoria felt his stubby wings close around her foot just as she leaped out over the rocky edge.

"GUNTS!"

Too late. They were both tumbling through frozen air together while Victoria struggled to right herself and create enough of a flurry beneath them to support the extra weight. She'd only just begun practicing that particular trick since Finn had driven them over the cliff outside of Breakfast Kingdom and she wasn't at all confident in her abilities. Finally as the ground rushed up towards them she managed to get herself flipped onto her front and hurriedly conjure a thick bank of leaden grey cloud beneath herself, cloaking her in a sudden lightness as it tried to incorporate her glacial aura into the snow that was already swirling down into a dense drift below. Victoria slowed and drifted safely down into a soft deep mound of powdery snow. Gunther didn't.

"Gunts?" Victoria gasped the moment her head popped out of the snow bank. She stared around, waiting for his answering _wenk_ but was greeted only by silence.

"Gunther?" she tried again, struggling to her feet. Still no reply.

With a hard knot of panic growing in her chest Victoria waded out of the deep pile of snow. She waved a hand over one shoulder distractedly to dispel the dense cloud as she desperately searched the area. She hadn't seen him land; the thick cloud she'd conjured had obscured everything for the last twenty feet of the drop or so. As her vision tunnelled in fear she heard a weak groan and rushed over to the boulder it was coming from.

There was Gunther, sitting dazed next to a jagged looking rock. At first Victoria thought he had some kind of plant on his head, it certainly didn't look like anything she was accustomed to seeing in the Ice Kingdom. Then she reeled back in revulsion when her horrified mind placed the odd looking pulsating green mass.

"Wenk." Gunther muttered weakly, eyes glassy and wing massaging the side of his skull.

"Gunts, your brains are hanging out." Victoria whispered in shock. She felt sick with terror and guilt; oh Glob her father was going to be _heartbroken_. Victoria's resolve hardened and she pushed the nausea and horror away. Time for that later, she had to fix her Dad's best friend in the world before his brain meats got damaged from hanging outside of his head. She scooped him up and cradled him gently, trying to ignore the way the green brain shook and throbbed with a life of its own.

"It's gonna be ok, Gunts. I'm gonna fix this. Come on, we're gonna go see Finn's clever science Mama. She can make you better." Victoria murmured worriedly as she hurried away. Gunther just groaned softly and rubbed his face with his wings.

She didn't really know the way to the Candy Kingdom, she'd only ever been there on the back of the giant eagle Finn had taken her for rides on and even then they'd only gone as far as the outskirts of the forest. From the way he talked she'd gathered that he lived in a palace far grander than her father's converted cave, full of servants and laughter and the bustle of an energetic Kingdom. Victoria had never seen more than a few people together in the same room in her life. But she was determined, nothing was going to stop her from saving Gunther. Finn had told her about how Queen Bubblegum had bitten her own hand off to save him when he was a baby, how she'd invented everything in the Kingdom and she could use science like it was magic to make things better. Most importantly so far as Victoria knew the Candy queen had no contact with her father and wouldn't tell him that his daughter had accidentally murdered his pet penguin. So she set off as fast as her legs would carry her down the road to the grasslands in the direction she'd flown with Finn. It must be a big palace, she figured, pretty easy to spot from a distance. As she walked Victoria was careful not to jostle Gunther's damaged head and not to let the frozen tears that fell from her cheeks touch his brain. She was gonna be strong for him. Like Finn would have been.

...

"Please, I need to see the queen right away!"

"Her majesty is sleeping and we've been ordered not to disturb her."

Victoria was nearly in tears; the stupid palace guards were pointing their spears at her and frowning down the length of their dumb banana noses. She was about just freeze them solid, sprint past them and damn the consequences when Gunther let out a slow, rasping moan and went rigid in her arms. Victoria froze, fresh panic surging through her chest. No, that sounded too much like a death rattle; she'd come too far for him to die!

"Hey, what the stuff are _you_ doing here?"

She whipped around at the angry voice from behind her and it was a weird feeling to be flooded with relief at the sight of Finn's annoying fire sister. But Phoebe's scowl twisted into horror when she saw the injured penguin lying in the other girl's arms.

"Princess, we told her she can't come in!" the guard said with a dull frown. "She insisted on seeing your mother about her pet!"

"What happened to him? That's Ice King's penguin, why is he shaking like that?" Phoebe murmured in horror, taking a step forwards and staring at Gunther.

Victoria looked down and almost dropped Gunther in shock. The pulsing green mass was pushing further and further out of his skull; for a moment it looked like waving green eyes and a head, like his brain was taking on its own form. Then to their horror Gunther sort of split open and in his place Victoria found her arms full of a many eyed _thing_ that twisted out of her grasp and expanded upwards into the sky until its dizzying form was towering over the palace and made the ground beneath their feet shake.

"VICTORIA!"

She barely spared a glance at the panicked voice that was yelling her name; distantly she registered that Finn had arrived at a sprint. But the creature that had once been her childhood best friend fixed her with one of its many beady eyes, shook what she thought might be its head and made a noise like a snort before pushing away from the ground in one immense bound with its weird jellyfish-like tentacles. It rose impossibly fast into the sky and as all three teens watched with their mouths gaping open in shock the creature twisted through the air, obviously fighting gravity, until it was just a distant speck in the far distance. Phoebe snapped out of it first.

"I'm gonna fetch Mom." she said in a shaky voice, turning on her heel and disappearing inside the palace doors.

Finn grabbed Victoria's arm and tugged her back down the steps into the courtyard, jogging around to a side door that he wrenched open with some difficulty. Victoria was too deeply in shock to question him until she saw where he'd lead her.

"Finn, I've seen those things in my books." she gasped. "Are we gonna do what I think we're gonna do?"

His wide grin was all the confirmation she needed.

"I'd take the eagle but you know he can't go up high enough. Here, put this helmet on. We're following that penguin monster, like heroes!"

...

"MOM!"

Marceline had already been halfway down the staircase from the tower and almost zoomed right past her daughter as she rushed upwards.

"Phoebe what's going on? The whole building shook and something huge disappeared up into the sky- you're so lucky your Mama's asleep!"

"Finn'sgirlfriendkilledherdad'spenguinandshewascomingtoMamaforhelpohGrodMomitturnedintoamonsterand-"

"Wait, wait, darling you need to breathe. Again. Slowly."

"Finn's stupid ice girlfriend killed her father's penguin somehow and she wanted Mama's help to fix him only the Banana Guards wouldn't let her in and then it turned into a huge monster and flew away and I left Finn out front with her and-"

"Finn's dating The Ice Princess? Oh that makes so much more sense! Wait, Phoebe, you left them alone together outside? Where there's a _monster_?"

Their eyes met and widened in perfect unison. Without another word Phoebe turned on her heel and sprinted after Marceline as she zoomed down the stairs, both of them wearing identical expressions of horror. They loved Finn, everybody loved Finn. But there was no point pretending; he wasn't the smartest boy in the world. And he so desperately wanted to be a hero and impress Victoria, Marcy could have punched herself for being so blind to his crush on the princess. The one girl in all the kingdoms his mothers had wanted him to stay away from, of course he'd immediately found and wooed her. And they were outside together without sensible supervision. Last time they'd been alone for five minutes he'd stolen a car and almost died. Marceline didn't want to think about what he might be doing right now when presented with a girl to impress and a monster to slay. She was hoping harder than ever that he'd be standing in the courtyard waiting for her but in her heart of hearts when she burst out into the sunlight and her youngest child was nowhere in sight she wasn't even surprised. Phoebe joined her a second later, ramming her sunhat onto her head and putting out the flames that were already erupting on her exposed skin.

"Where did they-" Marceline started. But she was cut off by the thunderous rumble of a huge engine from one side of the palace, down where Bonnie kept the couple of hangars she still used from time to time and stored odd bits of inventions and vehicles in. She had all kinds of things in there, a dirigible, carriages, a half-finished Gumball Guardian that occasionally got scavenged for spare parts, a refurbished pre-war rocket-

With a jolt of pure horror Marceline knew what Finn must have done a second before the roof of the hangar exploded into a billion fragments and rained soft pink frosting down on the whole palace. She shielded her eyes against the glare of engines blasting the whole vehicle into the air but even at that distance Marceline was certain she saw a round, peachy-cream face looking back at her from the small porthole on the side of the rocket.

"FINN! NO! FINN! COME BACK!"

It was no use, there was no way to stop the launch now that he'd somehow started it. The rocket was already growing small in the sky. Marceline had a split second to make a decision. There was never anything she wouldn't have done for her children.

"Phoebe, if your Mama wakes before I'm back then stall her. I don't want her getting sick with worry. If I don't come back then I want you and Jake and your Mama to know I love you all more than anything in the world. Even your little brother, even when he pulls stuff like this. I love you, Firefly."

"Mom, no, you can't-"

But she was already streaking off into the air after the rocket; much slower but still fast enough to disappear within seconds.

"-go without me." Phoebe finished in a whisper. Sometimes she wished Flame elementals could cry like everyone else. There was just too much sadness and panic for her mother and brother ballooning in her chest; it would have been good to relieve it even a little by letting it leak out through her eyes. Instead she sat down on the palace steps and stared at the sky, waiting to see if her family would come back.


	23. Chapter 23

**I promised to update more regularly and here we are! I'm every bit as surprised as you are tbh. But here we are, the long awaited and much delayed climax to this particular story arc.** **Quite a chunk of dialogue is lifted verbatim from the episode The Comet and there is an Easter egg in the form of dad rock if you look out of it.**

 **MAJOR thanks to the wonderful IAmTheTrashPanda for inspiring me to actually get off my butt and write this, and to my ever gorgeous Fox for being gorgeous and believing in me. Without further ado, here's the chapter.**

 **EDIT: I'm a fucking moron. I just realised that I accidentally replaced this chapter with the latest chapter of 40 Weeks instead. Oops? Sorry for the confusion, here's the story you were actually reading.**

 **Content Warning: pain, feels, injury, physics.**

* * *

The atmosphere thinning around her was the first warning. Marceline was wearing her sunhat and long gloves but the further from the ground she flew the stronger the UV rays from the sun grew and it was agony to try to force her watering eyes to follow the tiny speck above her that was her wayward son in a stolen rocket. She'd long since given up hopes of coming home alive but perhaps she wasn't too late for Finn.

If it had been Bonnie or even Phoebe they'd have known what to expect as they rose through the layers of atmosphere. But Marcy had always been too busy for physics, hadn't bothered learning anything about what air and space were composed of because why would she ever need to know? It wasn't like she needed to breathe and so long as she was blocked from direct sunlight she was perfectly safe. It was just a simple matter of only going out at night or wearing her sunhat through the day.

That was how simple it was down in the troposphere directly above the ground, anyway. Bonnie would have been able to estimate from how tiny the highest clouds were below her that she was approaching the limits of the thermosphere and was almost in orbit. Marceline just knew that she was in space and it _hurt,_ burned worse than anything she'd felt before. But there were no flames, just huge weeping blisters erupting on her exposed skin no matter what angle she twisted away from the fierce sunlight. There wasn't enough oxygen for fire to burn or even for speaking, she couldn't even find temporary relief from the agony of the growing UV with a wail of pain because without air to carry it the screams died in her throat. And still she flew after the rocket, towards the vicious agony of the sun and the approaching comet. Because her son was up there, he needed her. And perhaps she'd burn to death for him or perhaps she could fight the sun long enough to send him home. She hoped he'd remember to tell the rest of the family that she loved them. Hoped he wouldn't mourn her too much.

Without warning something exploded in the twinkling blackness of space far ahead of her. There was a long delay before a faint _pop_ reached her inhumanly sensitive ears through the insubstantial atmosphere and the redoubling terror in her cold heart spurred her to fly faster than ever. Back on the earth she would have long since broken the sound barrier but there wasn't enough atmosphere to really carry any noise unless it was something monumentally huge. Like a rocket bursting into a trillion pieces and vaporizing her youngest son in an immense explosion. Marcy wanted to scream for Finn, scream until her throat was shredded from the horror of it. But not even a whisper managed to pass her tortured, blistered lips. All she could do was keep flying.

 _Faster faster he could already be dead fly faster you idiot fasterfaster-_

There was no room in her heart to be angry with him anymore. There was no sensation other than glacial fear, the coldest and purest terror she'd ever known. Images of Finn as a baby and young child flashed through her mind; the way he'd slept so trustingly and peacefully in her hands as she'd washed the filth off him the night she found him and brought him home. The first time he called her Mom, the first time he pressed a sloppy little kiss against her cheek and told her he loved her. She held every single precious memory of him in the front of her mind and willed herself _faster_.

Marceline almost didn't see Victoria as she sailed past the ice girl. She was spinning slowly with her limbs flailing uselessly in her spacesuit, her perfect cerulean features set into a mask of horror and terror.

"It attacked our rocket and swallowed him!" she shrieked in panic through the air inside her helmet. "Please, do something!"

There in the empty space behind them was the monster Phoebe had warned her about. It pulsed and quivered as she streaked towards it like some colossal jellyfish from the deepest ocean trench and before Marcy had even so much as laid a hand on it the whole creature flinched violently and suddenly split wide open. There in the monster's ruined belly was Finn in his space suit with his replica axe held victoriously aloft; for a moment she almost didn't notice the agony in his eyes. Then she realised he was holding his weapon with his left hand and his right arm ended at the elbow in a bloody stump that still had the severed tendrils of the monster's internal tentacles clinging to it.

"FINN!" she tried to scream again, but still her voice was silenced by the vacuum all around them. Only Finn and Victoria could speak because of the air in their helmets, or so she thought. Until her son's forehead lit up through the glass of his visor and a booming voice filled the darkness. There was a shape, a slowly revolving purple _thing_ with three huge eyes fixed on his small form.

"Finn, do you remember?"

There was no air to shake from the depth of the voice but it reverberated in their chests and brains all the same.

"Finn." Marcy sobbed, reaching out for him but unable to touch him, held back by some invisible force. He seemed unaware she was there but the distance between them was slowly ripping her heart in two.

"Yeah, I- I think so. A long time ago, I was you, sort of. And I crashed on earth and became a butterfly or some biz. I've been around forever and experienced so much impossible junk. I've embodied all that is good and evil. And now I'm... I dunno, man. What am I? What purpose do I serve? Is it all just some random absurd thing, just a joke I've been playing out for centuries? Who's creating the joke? Are you? And if so, then are you my creator?"

Marceline shouldn't have been able to hear his voice either but it seemed to stem not from his mouth so much as the spectrum of rainbow colours streaming from the purple being into his head.

"I give you a choice, Finn. Come with me to the end and the beginning or struggle here awhile like a beautiful autumn leaf. This is your crisis. As you stand on the edge of freedom from love, hate, friendship, isolation, jealousy-"

As the voice listed each emotion an image appeared in the rainbow above Finn's head. Victoria, the Lich, Phoebe, the half-remembered darkness of his nursery from years before, a much younger Finn watching Jake and Bonnie laughing together. And so many other things too, the list went on and on. He frowned and shook his head, distorting the rainbow of memories.

"How long are you gonna list stuff?" Finn asked in confusion.

"It's a long list." the being of energy replied blankly.

"You're telling me to abandon all this stuff, but you're not really making it sound bad." he added thoughtfully.

"It's not bad. I'm just giving you the choice of a new mode of existence."

"I-" Finn stopped and his brow, from what Marceline could see behind the rainbow, wrinkled in thought. "I feel like I put a lot of work into this meat reality. But, then I dunno. It would be an adventure, just for me. I could be a hero, I could do all kinds of junk. It would be a fresh start. I-"

"FINN!"

Marceline had finally shaken herself loose from her trance of horror and agony; how long had she been staring at her son while the agonizing unfiltered UV flayed the skin from her bones? She sped forward and reached out to him, pushing with all her strength against the power that held her back though she was still unable to touch him while the being of light was suspending him in its field of influence. Somehow she was close enough for him to see her for the first time.

"Mom?" he whispered in shock. "You followed me? But, you're burning! The light! Oh man, and Victoria's here too, I forgot. I can't leave. I've gotta go back, people need me. I'm Finn the Prince, I'm not the comet. Not now. Maybe not ever. I can't, dude. Another time, but not right now. I just gotta get my Mom home before she gets hurt more."

"Very well." the comet boomed.

And they were hurtling back towards the earth faster than Marcy had ever travelled before, somehow the comet was shielding them from the terrible burning of re-entering the atmosphere and the savage UV radiation. Her skin healed itself and stayed healed; despite the incredible speed of their decent Marcy managed to wrap her arms tightly around Finn and Victoria. Nothing was taking her son away again, not while there was strength in her arms. She found herself sobbing uncontrollably against his shoulder, overcome with delayed horror. He'd almost left them forever. If she hadn't reached out to him when she did he would have gone, become... something else. It was too horrifying to contemplate. She pushed it from her mind as clouds began to streak past them. Finn was safe, they were going home. He was hurt but Bonnie could help him. And then when he was comfortable and his arm was healed she would have a very long talk with him. About how much she loved him, about how he didn't need to have a purpose beyond simply existing and enjoying his life. About how terrified she was of losing him. Perhaps it was selfish but she'd lost too many people already and he was her _son_. And she'd even tell him how proud of him she was, how brave he'd been and how stupid and how he'd saved everyone and how she never _ever_ wanted him to put himself in so much danger ever again. She'd begun to work out what she wanted to say to him to avoid becoming incoherent with belated fear for him, Marcy realised.

The invisible force returning them to earth released its hold on them gently and Marcy found she could fly under her own power again. Even her sunhat was untouched, restored to its original pristine condition by the power of the comet. Everything but Finn's arm which still dangled limply in his spacesuit. The moment she regained the power of flight Marcy swept the last few hundred feet down to earth and deposited Victoria.

"I'm taking him home." she told the girl shakily. "You should go home too, go tell your father you love him. You almost didn't come back and believe me when I tell you that no parent wants their child to be in that much danger. Go on. I'll come by tonight and let you know how Finn is."

The ice girl nodded, opened her mouth to speak and was interrupted by a long, quiet hoot from overhead which grew louder the longer it went on. They looked up and Victoria rushed forward, flinging herself out and catching Gunther before he could crash into the ground.

"Wenk." he told her in confusion. "Wenk?"

"You don't remember?" Victoria asked him. "You turned into a monster and tried to eat the comet. Finn took a rocket and we followed you, he-"

But when she looked around she was alone with her penguin on the edge of the grasslands with her father's fort in sight. Dazed, Victoria began the long walk home while in the distance her boyfriend's mother raced away with him cradled gently in her arms.

...

Finn slipped out of consciousness as they flew but Marceline could still feel the flare of his heart beating strongly in his chest against her vampire consciousness and that was all that kept her sane while she soared above the treetops with him. She tried to shove a desperate message down her Sire link to Matilda and Zoe before remembering that they'd left too; it felt like a lifetime ago. As the last rays of the sun slipped away to the west and her skin finally stopped aching they rocketed into the palace courtyard and pulled upwards in a tight spiral all the way to Bonnie's study window. There was no flickering blue head scanning the skies for them; Phoebe must have gone to alert her Mama when she saw the comet blink out of existence. Next second they'd swept through the open window and Bonnie was yelling Finn's name, rushing forward with mingled horror and relief on her face.

"Marcy what happened? He's hurt! His arm, oh it looks like something ripped him apart, my poor _boy_ -"

"I'll fetch the doctor." Phoebe whispered in shock from the corner.

"Hey, Firefly. Thanks." Marcy told her daughter quietly before she slipped from the room. Phoebe just nodded to her, understanding. If she'd disappeared into danger like that and Finn had been left safe at home Mom would have rushed after her without a second thought too.

Marcy laid Finn flat on Bonnie's desk, sweeping her books and junk to one side and using supernaturally strong fingers to shred the spacesuit away down to his waist and check him for any other injuries. He groaned lowly but didn't come around as her cold fingers pressed gently against warm ribs and shoulders.

"He's ok apart from his arm." Marceline finally informed her wife in a shaken voice after a tense moment.

"What happened to him? I saw the rocket launch and I saw you follow. I knew you'd bring him home." Bonnie whispered in shock. Marcy slid on arm around her wife's waist and pulled her into a relieved hug.

"We always knew Finn was kinda special. Turns out he's, like, the reincarnation of some powerful space being that takes the form of the comet? That's what it was, a sentient comet coming to do... something. I didn't catch that bit. I was too busy worrying about the giant space jellyfish that had swallowed our son."

"It _swallowed_ him?" Bonnie replied in a voice faint with horror.

"He cut his way out! That stupid axe that he insisted on getting, he used it to save himself! And the monster, the jellyfish thing, it was Simon's penguin! Bon that whole thing was like... damn, I sorta know how wildly hallucinogenic drugs feel like now. Babe, he had a choice to go with the comet or come home and he chose us. He chose to come home because he loved us too much to leave. I cried." Marcy replied breathlessly.

"Shh, hey, you're in shock. Come on, sit down, love. There's nothing we can do for now until Doctor Princess arrives. He's hurt but he's going to be ok. Half his arm is missing, he's lost some blood and he's in shock too. But we can fix that, I've made robotic arms before and we can have him good as new again. Finn's safe now, you can relax." Bonnie soothed as she gently pushed Marceline into her chair next to the desk.

"You were so brave." Marcy whispered to Finn's unconscious form as Bonnie tucked a blanket across his bare chest and checked his pulse and breathing. "And I was so scared I was gonna lose you. I love you, little man. Don't you dare go dying on me, ok?"

"He's not going to die." Bonnie told her gently. She pressed a soft kiss against her wife's cool lips and Marcy sighed against her mouth, wordlessly releasing the tension and stress of hours. They stayed like that for a long time, foreheads pressed gently together and arms around each other, just needing that comforting closeness. The silence was finally broken by a low moan.

"M-mom? My arm hurts..." Finn gasped as his eyes flickered open blearily.

"Hey there little man. I know it hurts, baby boy. You were injured fighting the monster in the sky, you stopped it consuming the comet's power. I'm so proud of you." Marcy told him tearfully as she stroked a hand soothingly down his cheek.

"I feel so sick. Mama? Am I gonna die?" he mumbled as he caught sight of Bonnie hovering worriedly on his other side.

"No, sweetie. You're gonna be just fine, you're our hero. Here, if you need to be sick you can use my trashcan, honey."

She held it out and Finn moved to take it. His scream of horror when he caught sight of his right arm had them both rushing to soothe him again.

"MY ARM!" Finn screamed. "IT TOOK MY FUCKING SWORD ARM OFF OH GROD MY ARM'S OFF!"

"It's ok! It's gonna be ok. We can fix it, it's not gonna stay like that forever." Bonnie told him hurriedly. Next second Finn had wrapped his good arm around her shoulders and was sobbing hysterically against her.

"Mama I was scared but I had to do _something_ , I'm sorry I stole your rocket but there wasn't time to stop and ask! And I'm sorry for it all, sorry for everything. I've been such a wad recently. I talked to Betty about it and she said it's a human thing. We get weird when we're this age, she said it's hormones and junk. But I just feel so... strange. All the time. Like, I want to do stuff I know is bad and stuff. And now my arm's gone forever and I'm a comet boy and this whole biz is just... I don't know who I am anymore, Mama."

"You're our son, our precious boy. You're the boy who brought us flowers on Mothers' Day and who always charms his way out of trouble and who has parents who love him more than anything. Ok? We love you, Finn. Even though you stole a rocket and a car and my eagle." Bonnie replied as she hugged him tightly. Finn just cried harder against her shoulder, unable to articulate his intense melancholy. That was where Phoebe and Doctor Princess found them a little while later. Finn had cried himself back to exhaustion and was half asleep again cradled in his Mama's arms while his Mom smoothed her hand carefully across his back and hummed softly to him.

...

After Doctor Princess had tended to Finn's injury and left him with some strong painkillers Marceline floated him carefully down the stairs and along to his bedroom. He'd missed dinner but the doctor had assured them that once he took his medication he'd sleep soundly until morning. Marcy was determined she'd be there when he woke with all of his favourite breakfast foods, she'd help him eat if she had to. Like she had when he'd just been a gorgeous little baby giggling up at her from her lap. She suffered a stab of nostalgic longing for the days when the worst trouble Finn could get into was escaping from his play pen and accidentally spilling Bonnie's inkwell onto Jake; she'd had to scrub them both clean in the bath because they'd dyed themselves blue that day. Finn had laughed and laughed, tugged on her hair and been almost paralytic with delight when Jake farted and made stinky bubbles in the water. Grod she wished her children hadn't had to experience pain and uncertainty, that they'd just stayed innocent forever.

"Mom? M'sorry." Finn muttered sleepily as she shouldered his bedroom door open.

"It's ok. We're gonna talk about it all another time when you're not hurt and exhausted. But just rest for now, you need to get your strength back." she told him gently as she lowered him into bed.

Once she'd arranged the sheets around Finn the same way she had when he'd been much younger Marceline unslung his axe from her back and carefully rehung it over the bed. She'd been scared at first that it would fall down in the night and slice his head off but Bonnie had made sure to replace the flimsy nails he'd stuck into the plaster with secure hooks that could easily take the weight of the huge weapon. Finn hadn't even noticed the difference.

"Bout Victoria too. I know y'don't approve. She's just... she's special." he murmured as his eyes slid closed. Marceline sighed, she hadn't even stopped to think about his girlfriend yet. Grod, if Bonnie found out- no, she wasn't quite ready to deal with that just yet. She resolved to tell her wife soon, just as soon as everything had calmed down a bit. Once Jake's pups had been born and Bonnie was overwhelmed with joy at their expanding family. That would be the best time, Marcy figured.

"Look, I can't keep you away from her, that's obvious. And I don't want to. Not if she makes you happy. But your Mama is going to disapprove very much. You know she doesn't like the Ice royals and she thinks you're too young for dating. Once you're eighteen you can do what you want, we can't stop you. But for now little man you need to live by our rules. No sneaking out to see her, no lying about where you are, ok? I don't want you to be in danger and us not know where you are."

"Mm, 'kay. I just... I really like her, Mom. I think I might be in love with her."

"I know, son. I can see it on your face." she replied softly.

"Mom? I love you too y'know. Stay till I'm asleep?" Finn murmured. From the sound of his voice that wouldn't be long.

"Of course. I love you too, son."

He mumbled incoherently but she couldn't make out any words, whatever Finn was trying to say was too blurred and distorted by the exhaustion that was overwhelming him. Marceline managed keep him on the right side of awake long enough for him to gulp a little water with his medication before he curled back up in his bed and tucked Hambo II carefully under his good arm. His mother's velvet soft voice filled the room, the same old lullaby she'd sung to him for years, the same one Simon had sung to her a thousand years before when she'd been a child in need of soothing too. And in his sleeping mind Finn forgot pain and sorrow, forgot his missing arm and his regrets. Her demon magic was filling his inner vision with scenes of serene joy; he walked across soft verdant hills overlooking the slate blue of the sea as it lapped against cool granite cliffs while the sunset painted the silken sky with a thousand glorious landscapes above his head. He was going to Scarborough fair, he was taking a bouquet of fragrant herbs to his true love and she'd make a cambric shirt for him in deep forest green. There was an acre of land waiting for him on the side of a hill, he and Victoria would grow their herb garden there together in the salt-kissed air of the coast. They'd be happy and she'd be his true love. He'd slipped into vivid and peaceful dreams long before his mother's lullaby was complete.

Marceline stayed in his room for a while afterwards, just watching the tiny expressions flicker across her son's face as he dreamed in a way she hadn't done in years. He was almost grown, he was so close to being a man. And he was still so fragile and innocent. It broke her heart to think of all the sorrows that waited in his future; more than anything she wished she could keep him safe from all the horrors in the world. But that was impossible, so much as she wanted to keep all three of the children in the palace and protect them from reality's cruelty she knew that any attempt to stop them living would only result in their instant rebellion. Perhaps that was how her father had felt when she'd unexpectedly turned up in his care just when her awkward teenage phase was starting. Marcy suffered an unexpected moment of sympathy with Hunson. He'd known nothing about her, even less about the world she'd grown up in and suddenly he had to rule his demon dimension and simultaneously parent her while she grieved for Simon's sanity and the whole human race. It wasn't like her father had had a lot of experience with putting anyone else's feelings first. No wonder their relationship had been so rocky for so many years.

With a quiet sigh Marceline supposed she should go see how her wife was, see what progress she'd made on the preliminary design for a replacement arm for Finn. Because she knew Bonnie wouldn't sleep until it was done. And Phoebe too, she wanted to hug her daughter and thank her for keeping it together despite the rollercoaster the day had turned into. Jake too. More than anything Marceline wanted to be surrounded by her family, just to know they were safe from harm for one night. She stroked a loose strand of shiny golden hair back from her youngest son's face and let her fingers linger just for a moment on his warm cheek. He was still so soft but with a stubbiness she hadn't expected; with a jolt Marceline wondered who had taught him to shave and why she hadn't noticed. Stefan, probably. He was so close to being grown and yet still just a boy in so many ways.

"Don't you cry no more." she finally whispered softly to him before stroking his weary head one more last time and drifting silently from his room.


	24. Chapter 24

**What to say, what to say? Well you know the drill. Go check out IAmTheTrashPanda's fic, The Choices We Make. Cause seriously, it's awesome. Other than that, just enjoy the show.**

 **Content Warning: body violation analogies that are not terribly subtle, descriptions of physical trauma, foreshadowing.**

* * *

"I know how you feel, you know."

"No you don't. Nobody does."

"Finn, darling, I do. You think I wanted to become an undead blood sucker? I know how it feels when your body is invaded against your will like that. It feels like you're not in control, like you lost a piece of yourself that you didn't even realise you needed. You always thought you had the final say in what happened to you but you suddenly had someone else force their will on you no matter how you tried to fight them off. I do understand and I think you'd be surprised how many other people do too. I might not have lost an arm but I know how it feels to suddenly have control of your body taken away from you."

He just sighed and hunched over against the wall. Marceline fought to keep in a sigh of her own and reached out to smooth the tangled mess his hair had become.

"Don't touch me." Finn snapped angrily. She withdrew her hand but didn't leave, hovering by his bed and watching him with tender, anxious eyes.

"Your Mama's worried about you." Marcy told him quietly after a moment's hesitation.

"Yeah cause she's so much use when something bad happens. All she does is read books and go to bed with a headache. She's pathetic." he spat.

"She got injured saving you and your brother from being murdered, do you think she enjoys having crippling migraines every time she's stressed? Finn, your mother and I both love you beyond words. But you're acting like a selfish butt right now and you stink, you need a wash and a change of clothes, you need to stop lying in bed all day feeling sorry for yourself. Are you even gonna use the new arm?"

He whirled upright and out of bed, suddenly livid with rage, and seized the robotic arm lying uselessly on his nightstand.

"I HATE THE STUPID ROBOT ARM! I HATE ALL OF THIS! I HATE YOU AND I HATE EVERYONE AND I WISH I HAD GONE WITH THE COMET!" Finn screamed furiously. Next second he was across the room at his window and had flung the replacement arm as far as he could into the night air. Then the tears came. His chest heaved with the force of the shame and misery that overcame him, the helplessness and anger and overwhelming horror that had stripped away his illusions of security. Marcy let him cry in huge shaking gulps until he slumped bonelessly against the window frame and when she gathered him into a hug he didn't resist, just rested his head against her shoulder to hide his swollen red eyes from her.

"Finn, get your swimming things." she told him softly. He let her put him down on his bed and nodded slowly, too despondent again to argue. Marceline swept from the room after a moment, along the corridor and up the stairs to her own bedroom where her wife was in bed with yet another migraine.

"Bon? I'm taking Finn out." Marcy said quietly into the darkness.

"Ok. Stay safe." Bonnie murmured from the bed. Her voice was scratchy and hoarse, she was at the worst peak of her illness and it would be another couple of days before she was well enough to even think about any kind of official business or research. She'd worked herself past the point of exhaustion to build a robotic arm for Finn, Marceline didn't have the heart to tell her wife he'd thrown it out of the window.

Marcy pressed a soft kiss against Bonnie's fevered brow and she sighed at the temporary relief of cold lips numbing her agony. Then the vampire reluctantly backed out of the room and returned to where Finn was curled up in a ball of misery on his own bed dressed in swimming shorts and a towel. He followed her to the window when she gestured and heaved a sigh when Marcy floated out into the night and transformed into a huge bat.

"Mom, I'm not riding around on your back in the middle of the night like a little kid going on an adventure. I don't even wanna swim." he sighed, avoiding her eyes.

"Come on, darling. For me? I wanna go swimming and your Mama's too sick. Do a favour for your poor stressed mother and take me on a Mommy-date. You always loved swimming together when you were little." Marcy wheedled.

"I hate you." Finn said again, but there was no heat in his words and Marceline knew she'd won. Next second he slid out of his window and landed on her back, curling his one remaining hand through the thick tuft of bat fur between her wing joint and gripping tightly despite his indifference to falling to his death. Mom wouldn't have let him fall anyway, he figured. Better just to hold on and let her have her fun.

They swooped away into the night together, off towards the mountains and the village where Uncle Olgar and Aunt Eagle still lived surrounded by their extended family. Normally flying was a guaranteed way to lift Finn's mood, he lived for the feeling of the wind rushing through his hair and the ground far below. But that night he was almost unable to feel it through a thick blanket of numb indifference. It was too difficult to do more than just cling on to his mother's back and huff a quiet sigh out into the darkness.

There was a deep, cool mountain pool not far outside the village and for a moment Finn's mouth almost curled into a small smile when he realised that was their destination. He had many happy memories of swimming there with Olgar, Eagle and Jake when he was younger. When he'd been whole, when he'd been a normal human boy with two arms and not the mutilated reincarnation of a powerful celestial being. It had all seemed so clear when he'd been held in the grip of the comet's power. He'd known who he was and why _everything_ , he'd achieved a clarity of thought that was somehow both alien and deeply familiar. And now the loss of that clarity, that purpose, was ripping him apart every bit as much as Orgalorg's tentacles had ripped his arm away. He hadn't even noticed they'd landed or that Marceline was back to her usual form until she placed him carefully in the shallow water at the pool's edge and the shock of cold against his feet drew him back from his thoughts.

He let her float out with him into the middle of the pool and they stared up at the buttery moon overhead together in silence. Finn knew his Mom was waiting for him to crack and say something. In the past he'd have stayed stubbornly silent but now he didn't care for a battle of wills, he didn't care for anything.

"Mom? How'd you get bitten by a vampire?" he asked quietly. Finn didn't know she'd been expecting him to say but her sharp intake of surprised breath gave away that it hadn't been that.

"I was nineteen and thought I knew everything. I decided to be a hero, save some humans from the vampires that were overrunning the place. It didn't end well." she replied after a moment's hesitation.

"Was it Uncle Stefan?" Finn asked, curiosity overcoming his despondence. Marceline laughed throatily.

"No! Oh Finn, how could you think Stefan would bite anyone? No, it was the Vampire King. A huge lion of a man, a shape shifting legend and the Sire of a whole ton of vampires, though I didn't know it at the time. Stefan was there though, hidden from view. He watched me launch myself at the King and he saw me stake the bastard right through his dead heart at the same time his fangs slid into my throat. It was a hundred years later before I got the full story out of him, he was driven half-crazy by the loss of his Sire. But Stefan is my lineage brother, we're as close as siblings. It was nice. I always wanted a brother."

"Yeah brothers are cool." Finn agreed, thinking of Jake and their close bond. "But didn't it hurt? Weren't you scared?"

"At the time I was too angry to be scared. I'd sworn to protect the humans and the Vampire King and his thralls were donking it all up. But afterwards? Yeah, I was terrified. It hurt worse than anything I'd ever known. I thought I was dying and I wasn't wrong. Even wrote a letter to your Granddaddy telling him I forgave him and I was sorry and not to grieve for me. And then I _did_ die and that was the worst."

He was sitting up in the water, staring at her in fascination and for the first time since she'd brought him home from the upper atmosphere Finn wasn't brooding over his arm. She shot him a rueful smile; of course the only thing that would bring him out of himself was hearing the worst thing that had ever happened to her.

"The thing about dying is that you're generally not aware of the end of it under usual circumstances. The feeling of your actual body ceasing to function and the warmth you hadn't even realised you loved seeping out of your skin. When you become a vampire you know all of that's happening, you can feel it because you're still present for it. I knew I was Turning and it was a slow process, it took days. It was literally torture."

"I felt it when the bones were ripped away." Finn volunteered quietly. "I felt the muscles tear and then the air got into places I've never had air before and I was so scared, Mom. I never knew how much I loved my body being whole."

Instead of replying she just gathered him into a hug, waist deep in water and not caring at all that her shirt and jeans were soaking. For the first time all week her son was smiling again and he hadn't even realised he'd started gently paddling in the water, bobbing up and down a little and hugging her back with his one good arm.

Finn insisted on landing in the garden below his window and retrieving the robotic arm from where it was snagged miraculously undamaged in a candy tree. He fit it clumsily to his stump and winced at the sensation of the advanced robotics interfacing with his damaged nerves, but after a minute he was flexing the fingers and making careful movements with it like he had every intention of learning to use it. Bonnie wasn't a genius for no reason, she'd taken the time to cover the arm in a lifelike candy-flesh coating matched to Finn's skin tone. If someone didn't know that below the elbow he was wearing a prosthetic then they'd have a hard time noticing.

"Do you think Mama's still awake?" Finn asked Marcy as they walked back inside together.

"It's not too late and she slept most of the day, so there's a good chance. Besides I doubt she'd mind being woken if it's by you."

"I thought she might like someone to read to her." Finn mumbled with a faint embarrassed blush on his cheeks. "Since she made herself sick fixing my arm for me. I wanna tell her thanks."

"Well I did have something I wanted to check out tonight anyway, I'm sure your mother won't even notice I'm gone for a bit." Marcy replied with a gentle smile. "Go on, I bet she'd like you to read from her book of ancient poetry. 'She Walks In Beauty' is her favourite, it's bookmarked on page three hundred and twenty three."

Finn sloped off to the staircase and Marceline watched him out of sight. Her chest still felt tight with worry for him but she was glad he was feeling at least a little better. With a sigh she fished out a now soggy piece of paper from her pocket, one that Olgar had found in a music shop in town and brought to her innocently enough.

 _WANTED: banjo tutor. Any hours and form of payment considered. Own banjo required._

There was no signature, no location or means of contacting the note's author attached other than a hastily scribbled 'P' below the professional looking typeface of the advert. Marcy had been considering it since before Finn had gone after the comet, before Zoe and Matilda had left. But she didn't have a whole lot to do any more since they'd worked out what the comet was and Finn had effectively fixed that problem. So with a sigh, figuring that whoever had left the advert knew when they were being contacted by a prospective tutor, Marceline floated off to her music room to grab her banjo. The moment her hand closed around it the room dissolved around her in an unmistakable whirl of magic and next second she was standing in the doorway of a different room altogether, a square yellow box with nothing but four doors leading into what looked like nothingness on each wall, a yellow music stool sprouting mushroom-like from the floor and the pink outline of a curly haired, blue eyed man on the opposite wall smiling at her like he was pleased to see her.

"Marceline the Vampire Queen. I'd hoped it would be you. And from the universe where you adopted baby Finn and started a happy little family with your lady love, that's interesting. My name's Prismo, welcome to my Time Room. Oh and your brought your banjo, excellent. Are any of your kids fond of pickles?"

...

The hardest part of sneaking out was finding a cloak big enough to completely cover her light, Phoebe thought as she tiptoed through the undergrowth. She'd had to resort to taking one of Aunt Zoe's abandoned cloaks; just entering the empty bedroom had sent shivers down her spine. Nobody had been in there since her aunts had disappeared, not even Starchy went in to dust down the furniture anymore. But other than acquiring a cloak it had been child's play to exit the palace undetected. Really she had no idea how Finn got caught so often, it had been a case of waiting for the Banana Guards to change rotations and then creeping out along the old tart-toter route through her Mama's basement laboratory. So far as anyone knew she was asleep in her bed; she'd left a weak Flame Shield on a rolled up blanket in case anyone thought to look around her door and check on her. If Mama found it she'd probably faint dead away with horror given how overprotective she was of her daughter in particular. But it was a necessary evil; much as she hated the idea of worrying her family she had things she needed to do for her own peace of mind.

"Phoebe."

She whirled on the voice by her ear that quietly hailed her and it took a moment for her adrenaline spike to calm once she recognised the speaker. Daven lowered his own hood and shot a crooked grin at her.

"Jumpy, sister?"

"Uh, yeah. It's the middle of the night and I'm miles from home in a dark creepy forest meeting someone who's practically a stranger. Forgive me for being a little tense." she replied carefully.

"I'm not a stranger, Phoebe. I'm your brother."

"I don't even remember you." she murmured, looking away.

"But I remember you. I begged Dad to let you out of the lamp. I remember reading to you, drawing pictures on the side of the glass for you. I wish you remembered me." he replied sadly. Phoebe instantly felt guilty for calling him a stranger, she hadn't considered how her adoption would have affected a brother old enough to remember her still being in her lamp.

"We should get started." she told him instead, shrugging it off. There would be time for feelings later but for now she needed to practice; she hadn't snuck out in the middle of the night just to catch up. Daven was recently graduated from his military training; Phoebe wanted to share the knowledge he possessed.

"Ok. The first thing you need to learn is to stop thinking of yourself as a vulnerable little cold-skin and start realising that you are a weapon. You don't need those." Daven nodded to the pair of curved daggers that Phoebe had trained with Mama to use a couple of years previous, when she started picking up some royal duties and official business. She unbuckled her dagger belt reluctantly and hung it from a nearby tree.

"Next you should take those useless cold-skin clothes off. I brought you something more appropriate for training in, here."

He held out a slim fitting dark grey suit made of a finely woven metal; Phoebe took it and examined it curiously. Dave turned his back and she slithered out of her cloak and the sapphire-blue dress underneath, shivering at the strange sensation of being naked outside no matter how briefly. After a couple of minutes she slid the zipper back up on her metallic suit and Daven turned back around, nodding approvingly.

"Almost perfect. You look like a Fire Warrior now, not a cold-skin. Except for that flame shield. You need to take that off."

"My shield? But, but I'll burn, I might hurt someone." Phoebe gasped, suddenly anxious about what she was getting into.

"This is who you are, sister. You're a Fire Warrior. You don't need to be afraid of yourself. We can just practice with the shield on for now but I want you to take it off before the end of the night. Come with me, we need to be somewhere you won't accidentally burn this cold-skin forest down."

She followed him to the edge of a cliff with her heart pulsing trepidation through her. Daven was her brother, he wouldn't hurt her. Would he? But when they reached the exposed rock he simply sat down in the lotus position and closed his eyes, gesturing for her to follow his lead. At least the years of practicing yoga with her Mama had made sitting in that position easy for her.

"Control your breathing. The amount of oxygen you allow into your body will feed your flames, you need to be in conscious control of the fire at all times. You need to look down inside yourself to the eternal flame in your centre and make it obey your will. You _are_ the fire, Phoebe. Focus your mind and reach down to the centre of yourself."

She closed her eyes nervously and took a slow breath, calming her mind like it was a pool of silver fluid that must not be disturbed. Mama had told her that she visualised her mind as a bright diamond that must be angled precisely in the light so it shone to perfection. Jake pictured a huge ornate mirror with a polished silver frame that showed flashes of his memories until he calmed his mind to glacial coldness and saw nothing but darkness in the smooth glass. But then Jake had always been a little odd. And who knew what Finn visualised? Knowing her younger brother it was probably a sword or something equally phallic, Phoebe though. She snorted and almost spilled her mental quicksilver.

"Concentrate." Daven murmured. Phoebe shook all thoughts of her adopted brothers free from her mind and took another steady breath, focusing on the gentle expansion of her ribs as the air flowed into her and the perfectly still surface of the liquid metal filling her inner vision.

Her core was something she'd always been aware of in a vague, nebulous way; when she'd been younger Phoebe had studied the rudiments of fire elemental biology, so much as it was known in the Candy Kingdom. Bonnie had told her that there was a tiny spark of the radioactive fire that the mushroom bombs had rained on the old world in her heart. That was what caused her body to flame and glow. Her fire needed feeding and tending but so long as the spark of radioactive material was kept in good repair she could burn for hundreds of years. But never once had Phoebe's mother told her that she could reach down to her radioactive core and control its output. It wasn't like Bonnie to be dishonest with her daughter so Phoebe could only assume her mother didn't know. She wanted to feel guilty for discovering this secret alone and against her parents' wishes but in her heart of hearts Phoebe sometimes wanted to test her boundaries a little, find her wildness and independence. Life as the only daughter of two immensely powerful queens didn't leave a lot of room for running free.

There was a blaze that was somehow greater than anything she'd ever known at the very centre of her, if only Phoebe could reach down into herself and grasp it. What had Daven said? She _was_ the flame. Control her oxygen. Bank the fire, burn it low and hot until it grew in intensity and burst out beyond her control-

A surprised gasp took her back to the physical world and Phoebe opened her eyes to find her brother staring at her in open fascination.

"It was all true." he murmured to himself. Phoebe wanted to ask him what was true but she was too busy gaping at the brilliant white light that danced hypnotically all around them. Her shield was still in place but the flickering blue magic did nothing to contain the dazzlingly bright light that enclosed them in a perfect circle. It did manage to keep the heat from liquefying the rock they sat on but the air around them blazed in a white dome, like an aurora of lightning. Then Daven murmured and spread his hand towards her and suddenly the very air around them blazed with a heat even fiercer than the day Flambo had fed her rocket fuel by the river.

"DAVEN!" Phoebe shrieked in terror. Next second the white-hot fire disappeared as she lost her grip on her inner flame and scrambled to her feet. The heat still churned beneath her skin though, blazing all around her and causing her wire suit to glow bright orange.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I just had to know! I needed to see it without the shield!" he explained hurriedly.

"Put it back!" she snarled, suddenly furious. She'd trusted him and he'd taken her shield away without warning her. Phoebe felt perversely violated, like he'd betrayed her trust in a deep and unforgivable way. She scowled at him, unable to leave without her shield restored but feeling her rage burn every bit as impossibly hot as her flames had. She was certain she couldn't cast it strongly enough on herself to contain her fire, she'd never tried.

"Phoebe, listen! Please! You were born under a prophecy, this old blind woman whose fire had nearly died knew you would be powerful! She knew all kinds of messed up stuff, she was scary crazy and she told our father you were going to be stronger than he ever was! That's why Dad locked you up in the lamp, your heat was too strong even as a baby and he was scared your flames would overwhelm him and consume him! You're more powerful than any other fire elemental alive! Please, I just had to know!" he pleaded.

"Just give me my flame shield back, Daven. I'm going home."

He sighed and flicked his fingers and suddenly she was the same shade of iridescent indigo as always. With a growl she turned and strode back to the trees where she'd left her dress, stepping angrily over the circular channel of molten rock that still glowed as it cooled in the night air.

"Will you come back some other time? Phoebe?"

She paused, turning to look at him and still scowling hard.

"Perhaps. If you can prove to me your promises are worth a damn. But I can't believe you took my shield away without asking. I can't be around you right now."

"Please! I'm your brother!" he called desperately as she whirled away.

"No. I have two brothers. Neither of them would have done what you just did because they know me, they know I don't ever want to hurt anyone with my fire. I have to go." she replied without turning back to him. And then she marched off into the trees to retrieve her dress and cloak, frantic heart pounding desperate betrayal all the long walk home.


	25. Chapter 25

**The end is in siiiight! I've got maybe two or three chapters left to write? This was supposed to be the first half of a chapter but the characters ran away with me and so I had to split it in two.**

 **Who's awesome? You guessed it. IAmTheTrashPanda deserves much love for her excellent proof reading on this chapter. Please accept my deepest apologies if the physics explained here are not quite on point. I'm afraid physics is a weak spot in my scientific background that I've been remiss in educating myself on. But hopefully it all makes sense. Alternate realities, ftw!**

 **Content Warning: Snooping. Kids, do not snoop in your parents' bedrooms. Don't do it. You might be mentally scarred by what you find, parents have sex lives too and not all of them are strictly vanilla. Somewhat mutilated Casablanca quotes; my apologies to the eternal soul of Humphrey Bogart. Physics, implied emotional but not genetic incest and all the horrified reactions that come with it, hints at ladysexing. If you think you recognise a universe? Probably cause I borrowed it from a readily available source with the author's permission.**

* * *

"Mom's acting weird."

Those weren't the words Finn wanted to hear before his eyes were even open. He could see his sister's blue glow through his eyelids and thrust his head under his pillow in frustration.

"Go 'way, Firefly. I don't care." he mumbled sleepily.

"Finn! Come on, I think something's up with her! She's been super quiet since that night you went flying together and you started wearing your arm, did she say something to you?"

He sighed and sat up, glaring at the unwelcome intrusion of light into his bedroom. Phoebe was sitting cross legged on the end of his bed peering down at him worriedly, blue flaming brow furrowed anxiously. By the light flooding in around the edges of his curtains Finn figured he must have slept until mid-afternoon at least; there wasn't so much he wanted to get out of bed for anymore. He cast his mind back to the night at the mountain pool, trying to remember what they'd talked about past the drowsiness still fogging his brain.

"She said a bunch of stuff. We talked about when she got bit by the Vampire King and junk. Loads of people have bad stuff happen to them and they just get on with it, so I guess I gotta too. I'm not the only one dealing with stuff." he shrugged with a sigh. His mood was no better than it had been the week previous but he was at least more resigned to his fate as a one-armed comet boy. His brother's impending wedding wasn't cheering him up any either, more than ever it felt like there were a thousand years between him and Jake now.

"She's been acting strange since before Zoe and Matilda left. I dunno, something's weird. Like, she's tense. Mama too. And it could just have been the stupid election biz or it might have been the- uh, other stuff." Phoebe finished lamely. She knew how badly her little brother reacted to any mention of the comet.

"Yeah. Other stuff, maybe." Finn agreed, still sleepy and a little slow on the uptake. "You think we need to snoop around some, find out what's going on?"

"Or we could just ask her." Phoebe suggested. The way she was twisting her hands together in her lap gave away her anxiety though; Finn knew that if subtle questioning had worked she'd never have come to him. Phoebe just needed him to be the one to do the snooping because she was too much of a perfect little princess to go through their Mom's stuff herself. Finn might not be the brightest guy in the world but he knew when she was manipulating him and he wasn't about to give in without a fight.

"We'll go tonight. She's busy with Mama organising Jake's stupid wedding, they'll be distracted for ages. And I think Lady wanted Mama to scan the pups too, check everything's ok with them. We'll have a few minutes to look around their bedroom but you gotta stand guard, ok?"

Phoebe waivered, he could see the warring urges plain as day on her face. Others might find her hard to read but she was his sister, he'd been able to predict her emotions at a glance since before he could write his own name.

"Come on, Firefly. What happened to being heroes?" Finn added quietly. "Don't bail on me too, I can't deal if you and Jake both give up on me. You wouldn't break a hero's oath to a cripple, would you?"

"Fine." she breathed, rolling her eyes. "We're heroes together, forever. I'll stand guard but you better be quick."

"Thanks, Firefly." Finn murmured quietly as he slid his good arm around her shoulders in a brief hug.

The evening came around quickly enough; by the time Finn had showered, eaten a clumsy late lunch and mooched around the library for a while it was beginning to get dark and his sister's significant glances and throat clearing weren't lost on him. Unfortunately they weren't lost on Peppermint Butler either, who fixed the pair of them with a steely glare and crossed his arms in what he probably thought was an imperious manner.

"And just what do you two have planned that's so secret and important you can't say it out loud?" he asked suspiciously. Phoebe looked horror stuck but Finn knew exactly how to handle the little candy man.

"Uh, it's a surprise for Mama. To say thank you for fixing my arm." he lied smoothly. "You understand, right? It's strictly need-to-know."

Peppermint's expression immediately softened at the mention of his favourite queen and oldest friend.

"I see. Well her Majesty has been under a lot of pressure recently, it's very thoughtful of you to arrange a surprise gift for her. Just promise you won't leave the palace or get yourselves in any trouble." he added, eyes narrowing slightly. Peppermint Butler may be easy to manipulate if he thought it was for Bonnie's benefit but he'd had sixteen years' experience dealing with Finn and he knew the youngest prince was more than capable of getting himself in all kinds of trouble without ever leaving home.

"On my honour." Finn replied with a gallant bow. The he straightened up, grabbed Phoebe's arm and towed her from the library before she could blow their flimsy cover.

"Nice going, brainlord. Now we have to get a gift for Mama too." Phoebe hissed at him once they were safely on the stairs to their mothers' bedroom.

"Yeah? We'll get her a book or something, I'll ask Olgar to go into town and pick up something old looking from one of the shops. He won't mind." Finn shrugged as they rounded the corner cautiously, ears pricked for the sound of Banana Guards unexpectedly heading their way. Nobody was around and there was no light shining from under the bedroom door so Finn let them in as quietly as possible.

"I'll wait here. Be quick and if you get caught I was coming to tell on you. Deal?" Phoebe muttered as he slipped inside.

"Ah dude, that's so lame. And totally something you'd do. It's brilliant and if we do get caught you totally owe me one for it. Now keep a look out and make a sound like a snow-owl calling for its mate if you hear anyone coming.

"What does that sound like? Finn? Finn!"

Too late, he'd already closed the heavy door in her face, leaving her alone in the corridor and fuming silently to herself.

He didn't have to search for long. There was something glaringly out of place on his Mom's nightstand; a jar of dark green pickles with an old fashioned looking label. Marceline didn't eat mortal food, there was no reason he could think of for them to be there. Finn picked the jar up curiously and turned it around and around, frowning down at it in the low light and trying to work out if he'd seen that brand anywhere before. It wasn't like he did a lot of grocery shopping, the Banana Guards took care of that sorta thing.

"Prismo's Artisanal Pickles." Finn muttered aloud to himself. "Wonder where they-"

He broke off in sudden panic when a noise from outside like a strained hooting hit his ears. That was Phoebe's lame attempt at a snow-owl's mating call, Finn realised. He froze, wondering where he could hide. If it was Mom then nowhere was safe, she'd smell him before she was even through the door and she could hear his heartbeat from across the room. Mama was easier to sneak away from but she was the smartest person on the planet, no way she'd neglect to look under the bed or in the closet.

"Firefly? There you are sweetie, what are you doing? We wanted you in the dining hall, we were going to run through Jake's wedding dinner. Have you seen Finn? Why are you standing in front of my bedroom door?"

It was Mama then. That was... Finn didn't know if it was better or worse. Mama could lose her temper quite easily and yell, Mom was usually a lot calmer. Next second he heard his sister's muffled reply and cringed; damn Firefly and her goody two-shoes nature.

"Oh! Yeah, um... I was... Look, Finn wanted to go through your stuff cause he was worried about Mom and I agreed to stand guard. I'm sorry Mama, I didn't wanna but he guilt tripped me by making me promise on that stupid hero oath from when we were kids. He's right inside, he was looking for clues."

"Tattle-tale." Finn muttered to himself as he hurriedly went to replace the jar of pickles. His thumb brushed over the spikey 'P' on the label just as the door began to creak open.

"You're a little too old for these kinda weak pranks, honey." Bonnie sighed over her shoulder. "Come on downstairs, we'll find Finn later."

Phoebe went to follow her mother, still shaking her gummy pink head in parental disappointment, but for a second more she lingered and glanced into the bedroom before Bonnie closed the door. It was empty, no sign that anything had been disturbed save for the slight jostle of pickles in a jar on Mom's night stand, rippling from recent movement. Wherever Finn had hidden he'd fooled Mama; his sister just shrugged and walked away to the dining hall.

...

"Of all the Time Rooms in all the multiverses he walks into mine. Finn the human, a living legend. Your Mom was right; you really do have a nose for trouble."

Finn looked around in confusion. The dark bedroom had disappeared around him in a swirl of colour and he was standing in a well-lit yellow room full of doors and not a lot else. He spun on his heal to face the voice that addressed him.

"Wow, dude. You're a shadow." Finn breathed in confusion.

"I sure am. Well spotted. My name's Prismo, welcome to my Time Room." the stranger replied.

"Where are we? This is in the palace?" Finn asked, looking around curiously and staring out of the nearest doorway into the nothingness beyond.

"Technically no. And yes. We're everywhere and nowhere. Finn, do you know much about alternate dimensions, string theory and the multiverse? No? Ok, well... think of it like this. The whole world you live in is like a page in a book. And there aren't just lots of other pages in that book, there are an infinite amount of pages. Everything you could ever possibly imagine happening is in that book. And then you pull back a little and notice you're in a library full of books. An infinite amount of books. And all of them contain everything that could ever happen in every infinite universe. Do you understand?"

Finn shook his head, it sounded worryingly like something his Mama would have tried to explain to him.

"So we're... in a library? But where are the books?"

"Not a literal library. A metaphorical, metaphysical library. Every page of every book is a universe, completely separate from every other universe. There are so many of them, all squished together in space-time and extra-dimensional space. And none of them touch for very long, only for a moment, only enough to let tiny bits of their world into another world. Like your Aunt Eagle Mask, she came from another page of another book from another shelf entirely. One day she'll go back there. But if you imagine every world is a page in a book in an infinite library then where we are now is outside the library door. You see? You're outside of space and time. Outside of dimensions. You both exist and don't exist, you're a Platonic ideal. Finn, you stepped through a door into another world and another time." the pink shadow man sighed in frustration when the boy just continued to stare at him blankly.

" _Dude_ , I travelled in _time_?" he gasped, amazed.

"Sorta. In space-time. Outside of space-time. Or more accurately space-time travelled around you. It doesn't matter. I expected you'd come by sooner or later, why'd you think I asked your Mom to teach me the banjo? Apart from it being a totally rad ice breaker for parties. She was so worried you'd find your way here and in an infinite number of universes you didn't. You're getting yelled at by your Mama for going through their stuff, or by your Papa, or by your artificially created cyborg nanny. Or you're battling a monster, studying for tomorrow's exam, hugging your friend while she cries- Finn, the possibilities are literally endless. But _this_ version of you is here and you've got some questions. You're the reincarnation of the chaos comet. There are places you'll find yourself coming back to over again and this is one of them. There's a reason you're here and neither of us really knows what that reason is right now. But I trust the cosmos, you must need to see something. So. What do you need to know?" Prismo asked in a business-like manner.

Finn paused, trying to process all of that. He was in something like the control room of the multiverse and apparently he could look in on all the other potential worlds that existed in a parallel time to his own. Like the Wood Between the Worlds, he realised. Marceline had recounted the whole Chronicles of Narnia word perfectly from memory to him and his brother and sister when they'd been very young. Finn had always hoped the wood was a real place; perhaps in one of the infinite parallel universes it was. But the pink shadow man called Prismo had said he could ask anything, know anything. Anything that it was impossible to know in the universe he came from. All of a sudden Finn knew exactly what he wanted to ask.

"Can I see the universe where I meet my human Dad? I want to know what he was like. The universe that's just like home, only he's alive. I just... I always wanted to know." Finn finished a little breathlessly. He'd kept his desire to connect with his human roots a secret from his parents for years, worried they'd mistake his curiosity for rejection of their love.

"Man, are you sure? I don't think you're gonna like that world." Prismo replied.

"I'm certain. I just need to see it." Finn replied decidedly.

"Ok, well if you insist."

The whole of the wall in front of them suddenly lit up like a movie screen; Finn sat automatically and the floor sprouted a comfy couch that he unthinkingly settled back into.

"Hey, that's Jake!" he said excitedly. "And who's the Dog lady with him? That's... not Jake? Is that his Dad? They look really alike. Hey, it's me! That was my baby hat, Mom still has it in her drawer! So, Jake's parents found me? But... where's Mom?"

No sooner were the words out of Finn's mouth than the screen refocused on a different location entirely, a spot on the edge of the Candy forest where his Mom hovered half visible with her axe bass around her shoulders, gazing at the rooftops of the Candy Palace in the distance with tears welling in her green eyes.

"So long, Bon. I hope you'll remember me sometimes." she muttered to herself, before turning back in the direction of the grasslands and disappearing amongst the trees.

"Where's she going?" Finn asked in confusion.

"Away." Prismo replied simply. "She left for ten years. Went... well, everywhere. Went home for a while, fought with her Daddy and left again. Went to the Citadel just in time to find the ashes of your aunts when they were murdered in their sleep by a group of rebels a few years later. They're dead in this universe. Peppermint Butler arranging for them to come to the palace literally saved them. Then your Mom went to a desert and stayed there alone for a while. Just... thinking, I guess? Anyway, that's where she went."

"Aunt Zoe and Aunt Tilda died?" Finn gasped.

"Fraid so. Wrong place, wrong time." Prismo replied solemnly. "Let's skip ahead until you're a bit older. Those Dogs raised you and Jake to be heroes, you're an unstoppable duo. Your adoptive parents died, you moved out with Jake into an unused treehouse you found, And one day the owner of that treehouse came home to find two strangers asleep in her bedroom."

"Oh, I bet Mom was pissed." Finn gasped. He watched in fascination as another version of his mother, looking identical to the one who'd raised him save for the lack of wedding ring, hissed at the alternate version of himself from the ceiling and proceeded to kick him and Jake out into the rain.

"It's a kinda long story. Basically she decided you were cool and you could stay in the treehouse, she went back to her cave. The junk leading up to your human father starts after, I just thought you'd need some context." Prismo explained. "You have a ton of surreal adventures, until-"

He pointed to the screen and Finn was looking at himself freeing a portly, balding man with a huge sandy beard from what looked like some kinda crystal prison. He recognised that at least, he'd read about the Crystal Citadel in school.

"My Dad was a criminal?" Finn asked, face falling.

"Sorry, bro. I told you that you wouldn't like this world." Prismo reminded him gently.

"What's he doing? Why's he leaving?" Finn demanded. The playback stopped, frozen as other-world Finn stared in disappointment at his biological father who appeared to be shrugging nonchalantly.

"Do you want me to rerun the scene? You gotta focus on the dialogue." Prismo replied. Finn watched in silence as his birth father brushed off his alternate self, turned away and tried to escape through a portal. When other-world Finn's arm was ripped away a single tear tracked its way down his alternate's cheek. Finn's hand was on the invisible join between his own elbow and the elaborate prosthetic his Mama had made for him.

"Stop. Just, stop it. I don't wanna see more." he muttered when the tower into space provided other-world Finn with nothing more than a heartfelt rescue by the woman who should have been his adoptive mother. "Why's Mama not wearing a wedding ring? Where are the scars on her face? Is she even talking to Mom? I don't like this world. I don't like humans, everything I've ever heard about them has been bad. And where's my girlfriend?"

"Oh. Um. About that-" Prismo started awkwardly, but not before Finn caught a glimpse of himself _kissing his own sister_.

"EW! DUDE! SWITCH IT OFF!" he screeched in horror. "What the fuck? Why would you ever show me that?"

"You asked!" Prismo told him defensively. "Look, would it make you feel better to look at some other universes?"

"Yeah. Ok. Can I see one where my parents are really happy together?"

"Sure. You want a human universe?"

"Yeah. I wanna see what they'd look like if they were human too. But, like, an exciting universe. I don't wanna see them doing boring stuff like watching movies or grocery shopping." Finn nodded.

The screen flickered back to life and he was staring at his own parents as humans and it was weird. There was Mom, same long silky black hair but her ears were rounded like his and her skin was a smooth nut-brown. And Mama's skin was the same soft peachy-cream as his own, her hair was pulled back into a messy strawberry-blonde bun as she launched herself into his Mom's arms, kissing her enthusiastically in a snowy forest.

"Wow. They look... has Mama been crying?"

"Yeah, a little. She, um, saw something that upset her. Look there's a pile of context here that you've missed and I really don't think you need to see what happens right after this. Do you wanna go back to the start of this storyline so you understand how they got here?" Prismo asked carefully, pausing the action just before Mom's hands could slip into his Mama's jeans.

"Ew. Dude. Yeah, we'll skip that bit. I wanna see the story from the start though." Finn agreed. Prismo placed a tub of popcorn he'd pulled from nowhere on the coffee table that had sprouted from the floor and without thinking about it Finn reached for it with his robotic arm and settled into watching the whole adventure unfold before him in a strange, human world.

...

Nobody had snuck up on Marceline in years, not since that time years earlier when Jake had surprised her in the palace kitchens. And it wasn't like she didn't know Finn was there, she simply hadn't expected him to suddenly fling himself around her neck like that and hug her so tightly she was glad she didn't have to breathe.

"I love you so much, Mom." he told her seriously.

"And you know I love you too, squirt. What's all this about?" she replied, hugging his arms back as best she could.

"Nothing. I just, I love you. Mama too. You guys are brilliant. And I'm so glad you're together, you make each other really happy. I just, I wanted to tell you."

Next second he pressed a hasty kiss to her cold cheek and skipped away, presumably to find his Mama and give her the same treatment. Marceline shook her head at his retreating back and sighed, putting her banjo down. She was ninety nine percent certain he'd been to Prismo's Time Room, the one place in existence she really didn't want him to go. He smelled vaguely of pickles and that uncertain cleanliness that came from temporarily being an abstract ideal; it had taken days for her own scent to return to normal after her first visit with the time creature. But given that Finn was a cosmic entity of some description it made sense that he'd be unconsciously drawn to another cosmic entity like Prismo. The shadow man had warned her that Finn was a focal point for the cosmos, he would receive Cosmic Owl dreams and become embroiled in cosmic events whether he wanted to or not. A quiet life would forever be denied to her youngest son but if she knew him half as well as she thought she did then Finn definitely wouldn't mind.

That night as they undressed for bed Bonnie was quiet too, obviously thoughtful.

"Did Finn come by and hug you half to death then tell you he loved you more than anything in world today?" she asked her wife after a while.

"Yeah. I have this feeling like he's been to Prismo's place and seen something that upset him." Marcy sighed. She'd brought Bonnie along on her last two visits, her wife would have staked her into a pile of ash for not sharing that particular discovery at the first possible opportunity.

"Maybe he got traumatised by viewing the universe where he and I got married." Bonnie replied with a disgusted frown, still freaked out by that.

"You asked if we ever ended up with anyone else!" Marcy replied defensively. "Sorry if you didn't like that!"

"Ok? But who the hell was that brunette? She was all over you!" Bonnie shot back, still jealous.

"I have no idea. Come on, babe, let's not argue about stuff that didn't even happen in this timeline. At some point in some universe you married Finn and had half-candy babies with him. It's gross but it's not outside the realm of possibility if you hadn't raised him from a baby and weren't exclusively into women. And in some even more distant universe I apparently was perfectly happy to suck face with some gorgeous-"

"Marcy!"

"-sorry but she _was_ hot!"

"Oh, is that so? I'll show you who's hot." Bonnie replied with a possessive growl. She dropped the nightdress she'd been about to wiggle into and launched herself at her wife. Marceline caught her easily and let her lips be claimed in a jealous kiss.

"You're _mine_." Bonnie told her fiercely when they broke apart. " _Forever_. I'll teach you to kiss other women behind my back in alternate realities."

Marcy just leaned in and kissed her again, perfectly content to let her wife push her down into the bed and claim her again. Because after the trauma of discovering that their relationship lay in tatters in so many infinite realities Marceline needed the comfort of knowing that in the here and now Bonnie loved her and needed her every bit as much as she needed her wife. She understood Finn's need to let his parents know how much he valued them. More than an hour later as her wife curled half asleep on her cool chest and slid sated, warm fingers across the curve of her thigh Marcy let out a contented sigh.

"I love you, babe. If there's a me out there who doesn't then I don't want to meet her. You're my whole world." she murmured into the darkness. Bonnie tried to reply but she was too close to fully asleep, all that passed her lips was an incoherent mumble. Marcy very carefully lowered her into the bed and wrapped the blankets around her, staying awake for a long time and just staring unblinkingly at her wife's perfect face and counting all the blessings she could think of. Soon their eldest son would be married and they'd have grandchildren. Finn was safe and understood that the greatest strength lay in love. Phoebe was a credit to them both, so intelligent and kind. They had a wonderful family, a wonderful life together. She wouldn't have swapped that for any other world in the unfathomable infinity of the multiverse.


	26. Chapter 26

**AHH IT'S THE PENULTIMATE CHAPTER!**

 **That's right, fanchildren! It's just this and then the final chapter and then it's Full Circle time! Are you excited? I'm excited. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank each and every single reviewer for their support and love, everyone who favourite/followed or offered me words of support. It's taken almost a year before I finally got this beast finished. And what a year.**

 **As ever here follows a gracious request to go read my awesome buddy IAmTheTrashPanda's fic, The Ties That Bind Us and it's unbelievable sequel, The Choices We Make. Go tell her she's awesome, because she is!**

 **Content Warning: OH WHERE DO I START? Drinking! Sexing! Horror over self love! This chapter is a pretty important one.**

* * *

The morning of Jake's wedding dawned fine and bright. Finn glowered up at the sky like it was personally insulting him with its glorious sunrise colours. Today he was losing his big brother, he was going to have to stand there in front of everyone wearing a stupid suit and pretend that he didn't have a million things he wanted to say to Jake but didn't know how. An unexpected voice from behind him made him jump.

"Still looking for best man speech inspiration?"

Finn turned and caught the gaze of the silhouette in the shadows behind him.

"Just thinking about when we were kids. About all our adventures together, man. I'm gonna miss you." he replied truthfully.

The outline that had been lurking in the long shadow on the east side of the battlement moved forward and revealed itself to be Jake, still sleepy and obviously just out of bed with his fur on end and eyes half stuck together.

"Dude, I'm not going anywhere. I'm just getting hitched, it doesn't change anything." Jake reminded him gently. Finn was about to argue but his brother's arms stretched around him a few times in a hug, reeling him in until he could almost wriggle his bound arms halfway around Jake too.

"There's just been too much change. Too much going on. Aunt Tilda and Aunt Zoe are still missing and Mama won't let anyone so much as think about leaving the palace unless it's with an armed guard, then all the biz with the comet and the election and... just... I don't wanna lose you." Finn finished with a heavy sigh. He was struggling to find the words to describe his feelings, still wrong-footed from seeing his alternate self in the universe where Jake had been closer than a brother to him. It seemed that when his brother was the only family he had left Finn and Jake had been almost unnaturally close, like the Dog was more like a mix of best friend, brother, father and guardian. It made Finn sad for alternate reality him; that boy had no idea what the love of a large family felt like, he'd lost his parents too young to really appreciate it. And part of him was jealous of that closeness, wanted him and Jake to being an inseparable pair instead of just regular brothers with their own individual interests.

"Finn, dude, you're my _brother_. You're not gonna lose me, not ever. Even if it seems like I'm lost I promise you I'm not. But Lady's important to me, you know? I need to marry her for the succession, cause it would blow Mama's mind hole if I didn't. This whole thing is really just for her, so she doesn't freak out about how having illegitimate grandchildren would affect her politics. It's Crown Prince biz, I'm glad you'll never have to deal with it. But it doesn't change stuff between me and Lady or me and you. I still want to have a family with her and be your big brother. Is that not ok?"

Finn rested his head against Jake's shoulder and sighed again, just enjoying the kind of closeness they'd shared as tiny kids when they'd been tucked up in the same cradle at night.

"Of course it is, bro. I'm just worried." he finally replied.

"Nothing for you to worry about. Except getting yourself fixed up for the day. Go on, Uncle Olgar's looking for you. He wanted to help braid your hair and stuff." Jake told his little brother as he unwrapped his arms and gently shoved the boy back towards the door leading from the battlements into their tower home. Finn went with one last sigh towards the sky, leaving Jake alone beneath a glorious spring morning.

In a way Jake could understand why Finn was acting the way he was. Puberty had been a rollercoaster ride for him too and his Dog physiology had at least meant it was over more quickly than Finn's. His little brother was going through the highs and lows of raging hormones and it was taking so much longer for him. He'd lost his arm, discovered things about himself he never needed to know and had to face that he wasn't indestructible at a time when most other teens were taking risks as easily as they breathed. Of course he was a little messed up. But Finn was also brooding far more than was healthy, refusing help and spending all of his time alone. There were signs of improvement in his little brother's mood but they weren't enough to ease Jake's worries over him. He hoped that a big party and the opportunity to flirt and dance with all the eligible princesses of Ooo that evening would help Finn find his mojo again. Pretty soon Jake was gonna have to go shower, fix his fur and put on the fancy suit his Mama had picked out for him. But first he wanted to just enjoy the morning. So he sat down on the smooth frosting of the battlements and stretched his legs into the lotus position, closing his eyes and focussing his mind until he was staring into the blank, cold depths of his mental mirror. The mirror was comforting, familiar, even though when he'd tried to describe it to his family they'd mostly seemed to think it was creepy. But as with so many other things Jake simply knew that looking into the empty depths of the silver framed sheet of glass was the right thing to do. So was marrying Lady. Once his mind was as blank and cool as the surface of his mirror he calmly stood back up and went inside to get ready to be married.

...

"Does the best man have the ring?"

There was a pause as the royalty and upper crust of Ooo held their collective breaths. Finn was staring with unfocussed eyes at the nearest floral arrangement, clearly lost in his own thoughts.

"Finn. Dude. The ring." Jake hissed at him.

"Huh?"

Next second Jake's magically stretched paw was worming its way into his top pocket and pulling out the oversized ring that Lady would wear more like a bracelet around one hoof. Finn flushed in embarrassment.

"I promise to you, Lady Rainicorn, and to all of our witnesses here today that I will support you, love you, cherish and faithfully adore you for all the days of our life together. I give you this ring as a symbol of our marriage and my love for you." Jake said solemnly, looking into his bride's eyes with earnest honesty. He slid the oversized ring onto her arm and Lady sniffled quietly, eyes watering as she gazed tenderly back. Finn wanted to snort in derision but there was a cold, empty space in his guts instead. Jake really loved the Rainicorn woman, he supposed it would be beautiful if it wasn't so girly. Finn had loved Victoria and he knew what love felt like. But he figured that Victoria wouldn't want to know him anymore, not since she'd discovered he wasn't even a proper human and he was broken and had to be rescued by his mother. It was all so shameful. Finn shook his thoughts free and tuned back in to the ceremony as the registrar was reading out the official pronouncement in a ringing voice.

"What has been joined today, let no person part. I pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss."

Finn looked on as his brother kissed his bride and legally became closer to her than anyone else in his family. And it was just too much, he wasn't ready to give up Jake. Despite what he'd said earlier the loss still cut him deep and Finn found that as he followed Jake and Lady down the aisle of guests accompanied by a joyful wedding march a tear welled in his eye and almost splashed down onto his cheek before he brushed it away angrily.

"You ok, little man?" his Mom whispered as he passed her in the front row of spectators. He ignored her; of course she'd seen him cry because she was overbearing and overprotective and always hovered around him like he was a delicate glass bauble that might shatter at any moment. Then a stab of phantom pain in his missing arm brought it all into sharp focus for him. His Mom worried about him because he _was_ delicate and easily broken. She could heal almost any injury anywhere on her body with just a thought, of course he must seem weak to her. Finn's cheeks flared with shame as he followed the wedding party back into the palace for speeches and food. He didn't think he'd ever felt less festive in his life.

The speech was spectacularly hard to give. Once everyone had finished eating Finn stood, avoiding the crowd's curious eyes, and read from his pre-prepared notes. The very least he could do was not let anyone know how badly he was feeling on Jake's special day; all the attention should be on his brother and his lovely new wife. Stefan had helped him prepare the speech itself and Finn was incredibly grateful to his vampire uncle. More than anything he wanted to get across what a great guy Jake was, how his marriage must be a cause of celebration even if Finn was personally hurt by it.

"When Jake asked me to be his best man there were certain things he begged me not to talk about in my speech. True to my promise I won't mention the time Jake almost got sucked into a tree witch's butt and we had to fetch Mom to rescue him. I'm not going to tell you that he sulked for a week afterwards and begged our parents to stop calling him 'Pup' because he was such a big, grown up boy. And I definitely won't mention the time Phoebe and I caught Jake dancing around his bedroom singing along to one of Mom's records and posing in the mirror; there are definitely not photos of that incident available if you ask later. Or when Mama let Jake help in the lab and he accidentally turned himself bald and green for a week because he exploded a potion. No, I won't mention any of that. What I will tell you is that Jake is the very best brother a man could ever wish for. I'll tell you about how he's kind and sensitive and caring, how he helped me learn to swordfight and always gets the most thoughtful birthday presents for his family. He always knows what to say to make you feel better, he's always got a spare hug or a moment to talk for anyone who asks. Jake's the kinda guy who'd give you his last penny if he thought you needed it more. And in Lady he's met his match. I can't think of a single couple better suited to each other than these two with perhaps the exception of our parents. And on a day like today, when we are wishing all the best to our happy couple, I have to mention three other people who I know would be ridiculously proud of Jake right now. His heroic birth parents, Joshua and Margaret, and his brother Jermaine. Although they are gone from the physical world I don't think a person alive who ever met Joshua would argue that his chivalry and sense of adventure didn't live on in his son. Or that Jake's kindness and big heart were equalled only by Margaret's. Jermaine tragically left this world before Jake got to know him but if my experience being his brother is any indication then there's no doubt in my mind that they would have been inseparable friends too. So on this wonderful, joyful occasion where we celebrate the marriage of such a perfectly matched couple I'd like you to take a moment and raise your glass to Joshua, Margaret and Jermaine."

Finn raised his own glass, locking eyes with his brother across the table, and the rest of the guests followed suit. For all he felt like a hole had been cut through his heart Finn could see how much that part of the speech meant to his brother. Jake's eyes shone with unshed tears as he lifted his own glass and murmured the names of his long dead family. Would they really have been proud that their son was marrying a Rainicorn? There was no way of knowing but Finn wasn't above telling a white lie if it made his brother's day special. If the family had to be split then he'd at least make it something beautiful for Jake to remember. Finn's brother was a special guy, he was every bit as sensitive and kind as the speech had praised him for. There was no way his birth family wouldn't be on his mind on his wedding day and they deserved to be honoured for their sacrifice. Unlike Finn's own birth father, Joshua had died a hero and whatever else had happened he'd loved Jake to distraction.

"And another toast. To the bride and groom, their future pups and the bliss of matrimony. Nobody deserves it more than them." Finn added once the murmurs had faded. He took his seat again and barely listened to the rest of the speeches. After a few minutes a stretched paw took his hand under the table and gave it a companionable squeeze. Finn looked up and caught the sympathetic look Jake was shooting him. He squeezed back, unsurprised that Jake had noticed that his mood was taking a nose dive. After all, Jake was kind and sensitive and caring, the best brother a man could have.

...

"Hey, Firefly."

"Nothing!"

"Uh... what?"

Phoebe met her little brother's confused gaze as steadily as she could with the gentle way the world was spinning around her and passed the bottle behind her back across to LSP. Unfortunately her friend keeled to one side and just grinned up at Finn with the bottle halfway to her mouth.

" _Fiiinn,"_ she slurred, "you're _hot._ "

"Are you two... drunk?" Finn gasped in shock.

"No, shhhh, see you can't tell Mom or Mama, see it's a secret." Phoebe told him earnestly.

"Gimme the bottle, LSP." Finn said with a sigh. He reached out for it but she clung to it, eyeing him shiftily.

"Oh my Grod, Finn. You're like, so _lame_. I bet you don't even dare drink any, do you?" the lumpy woman slurred. Finn's eyes narrowed.

"Give. Me. The. Bottle." he repeated dangerously.

She held it out and in one fluid movement Finn snatched it from her and upended it against his lips, swallowing hard against the burning liquor until he'd emptied almost a third.

"Now who's lame?" he asked with a crooked grin. Once the fire had died down in the back of his throat he almost felt better, like his problems were distant and dissolving in the alcohol.

The party partied on; with most of the royalty of Ooo in attendance and international politics to be considered the adults didn't have a lot of time to supervise the younger princes and princesses. It wasn't long before a group of them had slid away to the library with more bottles of the wicked strong alcohol LSP and BMO had smuggled in with them. Finn was feeling delightfully numb, so much better than he'd been in days. It was almost like his problems couldn't touch him and for just one night he was a normal boy again.

And then a block of ice slid into his stomach, almost literally. He turned a corner on his way to sneak more food from the buffet and there was Victoria in a beautiful powder blue gown a few shades lighter than her skin, silken pale hair falling across her shoulders in loose curls and sapphire eyes frosted with the finest diamond powder. She took the breath from his lungs, she was so beautiful.

"Victoria." Finn said stupidly, blinking in surprise. "What're you doin here?"

"Finn." she breathed in relief. Next second she'd flung herself into his arms and was kissing him deeply; it was all Finn could do to stay upright against the unexpected weight.

"I didn't know you were here." he told her when she finally came up for air, although he didn't unwind his hands from her hair or pull away from her at all. Not when it was almost painful obvious that she wasn't disgusted by him. He'd been too scared to contact her and when she hadn't sent him a message in the month since their return from space he'd assumed the relationship was over.

"Everyone's here. Even the Flame Prince, although I noticed your sister was deliberately ignoring him. Urgh, that guy gives me the creeps." Victoria replied, shivering in his arms. "I didn't know if you wanted to see me, I just... Finn, do you still love me?"

There were half frozen tears in her eyes and Finn was mesmerized by the way she stared up at him part hopeful and part forlorn. The words were ripped from his mouth before his brain had any chance to intervene.

"I love you more than anything in the world. I don't want anyone else, I just want you. I'm so sorry, Victoria, I thought you'd hate me because I was weak and broken and-"

She cut him off with another deep kiss and despite the significant amount of alcohol in his blood Finn could feel an entirely different kind of heat flooding him. Victoria still wanted him, she loved him, she was kissing him so skilfully and deeply and very suddenly he was completely _done_ with being a silly boy and being the youngest and the fragile one. She squeaked in surprise when he slid his arms under her and lifted her off the floor but didn't complain, just wrapped her legs around his waist to draw them closer together and continued kissing him as he carried her into the nearest empty room. It was a rarely used reception room for visiting royalty, there was plush sofa with plenty of cushions and room for two teenagers to stretch out together. There was even a lock on the door.

"Are you sure?" Victoria panted, although the look in her eyes when she gazed at him almost burned him with desire. Finn swallowed. Was he sure?

"Yeah. I'm sure. This feels right." he nodded after a second. And it did. What had Phoebe told him? Her Cosmic Owl dream meant he and Victoria were meant to be together. Even Firefly thought so, it must be true. But somewhere in the back of his mind as Victoria's cool lips were fastening onto his collarbone and her fingers worked loose the buttons of his shirt he was remembering that excruciatingly embarrassing day years ago in his Mom's sunroom. She'd said a lot of stuff, about Firefly needing to keep fluids off herself and Mama producing all kinds of stuff for the Kingdom, about being emotionally ready and just wanting him to be prepared for when he did end up having an adult relationship with someone. And asking him to be safe, he remembered that.

"Wait! I gotta do something." Finn gasped. Victoria immediately backed off, confusion and hurt in her eyes.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked quietly, staring at him in shock.

"No, no I just gotta get something outta my boot, wait."

He reached forwards off the sofa and grabbed his discarded boot. Mom had told him he needed protection, told him to be careful and stay safe. That kinda advice wasn't something Finn was going to ignore even if he didn't remember much else of The Talk. He slid his hand into the hidden compartment and drew out his protection before handing it solemnly to Victoria.

"You, um, what am I supposed to do with this?" she asked, staring down at it.

"Duh. You gotta hold it against my throat." Finn replied, still mostly numb from the alcohol. Victoria looked at him strangely but shrugged and gingerly held the blade of Finn's concealed dagger against his throat. Their eyes met and he saw nothing but trust in those azure depths. He nodded and she dropped the dagger.

"Do you want me?" Victoria whispered against his lips.

"So much." Finn replied huskily. He guided her hands back onto his chest before reaching around and ever so carefully beginning to unlace her dress. Something in the back of his mind knew it was right, it was meant to be. And he loved her more than any man had ever loved any woman, that night he loved her tenderly and thoroughly, loved her intensely and then loved her slowly. By the time the first light of morning was creeping through the windows he was asleep against her cool skin, happier than he had been in weeks and deeply content. Victoria left him curled up on the sofa with his shirt draped across his waist in lieu of a blanket. She pressed a kiss to his cheek before she snuck out and left a quick note to explain that she'd gone home before her father ripped the Kingdom apart looking for her but that she'd be back soon and she loved him more than she had words for. When he found that note Finn tucked it into his pocket and snuck still half undressed back to his bedroom to change and shower and begin his first day as a man, not a boy.

...

The cheerful whistling that filled the dining hall that morning had Stefan narrowing his eyes suspiciously over his plate of strawberries. Finn's own plate was overflowing with bacon, eggs, waffles, syrup and every other kind of breakfast food he could possibly stack on the limited space. He was laughing and joking, grinning happily at his sister who seemed to be in a bad mood and have something of a headache which may or may not have anything to do with the reek of stale alcohol rolling off her. At least it smelled strong enough that she could burn it instead of being injured by it, which was a relief. But Finn's mood had undergone such a dramatic seismic shift since yesterday that Stefan saved the parental disappointment lecture he'd been working on for Phoebe and drifted over to Finn instead. He locked eyes with the boy who just grinned and shrugged. It was the direct opposite of the behaviour Stefan had expected.

"You seem cheerful." he started neutrally.

"It's a beautiful day. Jake's happily married, the birds are singing and the world is full of love." Finn replied with an unreadable smile.

He reached casually for the milk jug and Stefan couldn't help but notice that Finn was using his robotic arm as naturally as he had before his injury. Something had happened last night, something that had completely destroyed the boy's self-consciousness over his prosthetic. Reluctantly Stefan lowered the shields on his telepathy and attempted to carefully infiltrate Finn's mind. For his own good, of course. Just to check nothing too suspicious was happening.

If Stefan had been expecting to read Finn as easily as he had when the lad had been a small child he was in for a shock. Instead of the simple act of reading his young ward's thoughts right out of his innocent mind Stefan found himself bounced off and away on the crystalline edge of something that flashed and sparkled in the sun. Finn's mental defences had grown exponentially and he was wielding a sword within his mind, automatically repelling intruders without any signs of being consciously aware of it. The sword itself felt crystalline and Stefan's suspicious gaze fell on the royal gem hanging innocently around Finn's neck. It was supposed to protect his mind from unfriendly intrusion but he supposed Finn had been wearing it so long that it had integrated with his mental defences. It had been many years since Stefan had tried to read the boy's mind without him knowing and apparently in the intervening time Finn had developed beyond all expectation. Stefan concentrated, pushing just a little harder against Finn's mind.

This time he managed to slip past the sword, just for a second. Finn was thinking about a memory. _Eyes screwed tight shut and the aching tidal wave of need and desire growing, he was gasping out a girl's name before a surge of intense pleasure overtook him and he cried out wordlessly_. Stefan retreated hastily from the prince's mind as the mental gem-sword whirled and slashed, horror and disgust swirling through him. Finn was gazing up at him with his mouth stuffed full of food.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." Stefan replied weakly before turning and drifting away as his own mind reeled.

So apparently Finn was more than proficient using the new robotic hand and had spent his brother's wedding night getting used to it in a way that Stefan really should have anticipated a seventeen year old boy would do. It was still disturbing though; he'd helped raise Finn from a baby, had changed his diapers and cleaned him up after potty training accidents. All boys masturbated but this must be how parents felt when they realised that it applied to their son too. He should warn Marcy, he thought. But how? Perhaps Finn would just be discreet about it and save him the embarrassment of having to have that conversation with his Queen.

If Stefan had been a little more resolved to talk to Marceline about Finn's newfound sexual satisfaction, if someone had been keeping a closer eye on where the kids were and what they were drinking the night before, if Finn had remembered more than just his dagger from his mother's protection talk, perhaps things would have been different. And perhaps in an infinite number of universes they were. But in that world, at that time, the deed was done. And for Finn at least it was a good thing; he'd never felt happier. He had a wonderful girlfriend who he was so in love with. Jake had promised he'd never leave him no matter what. Firefly was his best friend and could be depended upon to keep all kinds of secrets. And no matter what else he knew he had the best parents in the world. Not like the deadbeat human who'd fathered him. Finn didn't see how life could get any better that morning.


	27. Chapter 27

**I'd like to thank you all for your support and patience while I've been writing this story. Really, I've been a crappy author and I've not updated anywhere near as regularly as I wanted to. But here it is, the final chapter. If you guys want to hit me with a review and let me know what you think I'd be terribly grateful!**

 **There'll follow a short break while I work on the final instalment in the Foundlings series, Full Circle. More action! More plot! I have things planned for that story, Big Things. So watch this space! Did you notice some loose ends I haven't tied up? Those are there for a reason, they'll all get tidied away by the end of the last story. I hope you enjoy, don't forget to review!**

 **Content warning: birth, confrontation, feels.**

* * *

Even after all those years a vampire didn't sleep so heavily at night. A distant wail of pain brought Marceline awake instantly and she turned to her wife, shaking her by the shoulder until the candy woman opened her eyes blearily. The brain of the undead didn't usually need to warm up, she didn't need any time to process what she was certain she'd heard.

"Bonnie, wake up. That was Lady, she's in pain. I think the-"

The bedroom door crashed open before she finished, revealing a panting and panic stricken Jake.

"Pups are coming!" he yelled frantically before dashing off again.

"I'll call the doctor." Bonnie said a little raspily, rubbing the sleep from her eyes before reaching for her phone. Marcy nodded to her and slid out of bed to follow her eldest son.

"Mom? What's going on?" Phoebe asked sleepily from her own bedroom door as Marceline drifted past.

"Sounds like Lady went into labour, your Mama's fetching the doctor. Come on Firefly, I might need some help. If it all happens fast Dr Princess won't have time to get here and the last birth I had any direct involvement with was my own." Marcy replied as she took hold of Phoebe's arm and tugged her along the corridor too.

"S'happeneing? M'tryna sleep." Finn grumbled from his own bedroom door. His hair was messed around his head in a scruffy blonde halo and as usual since he'd begun developing muscles he was shirtless. Marcy spared a second to frown at him with parental displeasure.

"Put a shirt on, Finn. Lady's having the babies and we're gonna help. Go to your Mama and wait for the doctor with her."

The last thing anyone needed was Finn getting in the way, she thought as she and Phoebe continued along the corridor. And in all truth probably the last thing Finn wanted was to see his sister-in-law in the throes of labour pains. He'd been ambivalent about Lady's pregnancy from the start and really hadn't wanted to know any of the details of what the birthing process involved when Jake or Bonnie tried to educate him. No, better he stayed away from the messy side of it completely.

They arrived at Jake and Lady's suite as another wail broke the air and hurried inside. Lady was coiled on the bed with Jake stretched out next to her, rubbing the length of her long sinuous back as a cold sweat broke out on her forehead and her face contracted with pain.

"Heat!" she cried, reaching out to Phoebe. The girl stumbled forwards and allowed her older brother to place the palms of her hands against Lady's lower back. Immediately the Rainicorn slumped into Jake's arms in relief. Phoebe concentrated, channelling as much energy past her flame shield as she could without harming the other woman.

"Your Mama's fetching the doctor." Marcy informed Jake as she hovered worriedly by the bed. "Can I do anything to help?"

"It hurts." Lady whimpered. Jake soothed her brow and shot a worried glance to his mother.

"I dunno. Is it supposed to hurt as much as this?" he asked anxiously. Marcy shrugged.

"You're asking the wrong person, Pup. But yeah, from everything I've read it's supposed to hurt a ton. Just hang on, the doctor will be here soon." she added as soothing as possible to Lady.

For the next hour Marceline alternated between hovering anxiously and feeling incredibly useless to staring out of the windows into the courtyard watching for the doctor to arrive. Lady cried out intermittently and Phoebe channelled heat into her over and over while Jake fretted and Marcy looked on, barely able to contain her panic at being so powerless to help. Finally the door burst open to reveal Bonnie and Doctor Princess with her old beaten up maternity bag slung over one shoulder. She wasted no time in elbowing Marceline out of the way and hurrying to Lady's side and for once the vampire didn't even care about Princess' brusque manners.

"Ok, I'm gonna give you something for the pain, it'll make you feel quite sleepy and distant for a while. Once everything's in position it'll happen quickly. Your first little one is already head down and eager to get into the world." the doctor announced after a brief examination. Lady just moaned softly in reply and Doctor Princess nodded to herself, readying the hypodermic needle with the medicine and then sliding it painlessly into Lady's shoulder. Almost instantly her breathing evened and slowed and a dream-like calm fell across her face.

There was just enough time to calm Jake too, ready the basket that had been lined with soft blankets for the newborns and check Lady's blood pressure. Then with barely more warning than a low groan and a shudder that ran the length of her long sinuous body the first of their litter slid easily into the world and into the doctor's outstretched hands.

"A beautiful boy." she declared proudly. "Keep going sweetheart, you're doing brilliantly. Jacob, come meet your son."

Jake came forward a little cautiously as the doctor handed him an orange bundle wrapped in a towel. The baby flailed his tiny limbs and opened his eyes for the first time, gazing up at his proud father and grandparents.

"Oh Jakey, he's perfect." Bonnie breathed softly. Jake tried to reply but all that came out of his throat was a sort of choked-up croak. He held the baby up so that Lady and Phoebe could see before promptly bursting into tears.

"M-my son." Jake sobbed as Marceline patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"And a daughter!" Doctor Princess announced, straightening up from the bed with her arms full of another wiggling baby. This one was a pale yellow with pastel patches on her furred stomach and already wailing at the top of her tiny lungs, a stubby soft white horn gleaming on the forehead that she butted gently against her father's paw as he took her too.

"My son and daughter. I don't even know what to say." Jake mumbled, staring down at them as thought he'd never seen a child before. "Hey there little ones, I'm your Daddy. Your Mommy is busy helping your other siblings into the world so for a little bit of time it's just you and me, I'm really lucky because I get to have the first cuddle with you. But there are so many people who are gonna want to get to know you, you five little guys are gonna be so loved. You've got an aunt and an uncle and a Rainicorn Grandmom and Grandpa and two really amazing Grandmothers too. There's a whole world full of adventure and magic for us to explore together. We're gonna have so much fun, little ones."

Two more colourful daughters arrived in quick succession and Jake stretched his arms to accommodate them both, grinning in surprise when he noticed one of them had what looked like a butt for a face. She'd learn to hold her own pretty quickly, no doubt. But she was his daughter and it wasn't like he hadn't been a buttface himself plenty of times. She'd be called Jake Junior then, he was certain Lady would agree. Three perfect daughters and a beautiful son, one more baby to come. Jake himself was almost numb with the overwhelming love he felt for his family, like nothing at all could touch him through the joy that filled his world.

Finally with a long cry their last puppy slid into the world, a round little blue faced and rainbow bellied boy. He was wrapped in a blanket and handed to his father who accepted him shakily, beaming down into his waiting face.

"TV." Jake whispered. "Your name is TV. I'm you Dad, son. Welcome to the world."

All five puppies were placed in the specially widened basket while they slept and as he gazed down at their young family with his exhausted wife by his side Jake realised that he would literally kill and die for every one of his children. He slid across to his joyful mothers and wrapped them in a tight hug, unable to say out loud the deep appreciation he'd just found for them. They simply hugged him back; Jake was certain they understood.

...

By the next morning it was obvious that something hadn't worked exactly and completely how Bonnie wanted it to and she _hated_ when her science didn't go right. Lady had asked her weeks ago to find a way for the puppies to grow more slowly, more like regular grasslands children so they could enjoy their childhoods. Bonnie had spent some time in the lab perfecting a serum for the pregnant Rainicorn to take every day which should help slow their development once they were born. But something hadn't quite worked right and Kim and TV were already bigger than their sisters. Lady reassured her that she'd done all she could and they were still thankful that their children would have a longer childhood, that they were growing a lot more slowly than pure Rainicorn children so it must have worked at least a little. It was still frustrating though; Bonnie hadn't had a lot of practice with things she attempted not working out. But it didn't stop the irrepressible smile that worked its way onto her face when TV wiggled around and gummed her fingers hungrily, making little squeaks and growls.

"You're such a big boy already, aren't you?" Bonnie whispered quietly to the baby. She'd taken him off an exhausted Lady a little before dawn because the other pups were sleeping and energetic little TV kept waking them up. So they sat on the wide, flat roof of one of the anterooms together and watched the sky turn from star-strewn indigo to a silent explosion of reds, pinks, oranges and gold. When the first direct rays of light hit TV's eyes he burrowed his head back into his grandmother's lap, making her giggle a little.

"Silly pup. You know, it's been a long time since I had a wiggly baby to cuddle. I've kinda missed it. And Marcy- your Gran Gran, she has too. You don't know it yet but you have two pretty unusual grandmothers. You're gonna be biologically older than both of us in just a few months if the rate you're growing at now is any indication. But however big you get we'll always be your family and we'll always love you, I want you to remember that. You wanna go see if Gran Gran is awake yet?"

He squeaked again almost like he understood what she was saying and in one fluid motion Bonnie gathered the puppy more securely in her arms and swept them both upright. They made their way back inside with TV's curious eyes taking in every detail of the palace as he was carried along in his grandmother's arms. On the main staircase leading up to the family's tower they ran into Finn and Marceline making their way down to breakfast. It didn't escape Bonnie's notice that they broke off their conversation the moment they saw her and that Finn looked rather guilty and red in the face. Usually she'd press to find out what they'd been talking about but TV gave a happy yip and tried to throw himself on his uncle, who caught him with a laugh.

"Hey there little guy! Gonna come to breakfast with Uncle Finn?" he grinned. TV yipped again and Finn tickled his furry belly before continuing on his way to the dining hall.

"He's growing up so fast." Marcy sighed as the end of Finn's braid disappeared around a corner.

"I know. I just have no idea why the science worked for the girls but Kim and TV still have accelerated growth. Jake really wanted them to have time to enjoy their childhood."

"I meant Finn."

"Oh. Yeah, yeah he's growing pretty fast too." Bonnie agreed. Marceline was shifting around a little uneasily in the air like she was nerving herself up to say something. Her wife watched curiously as the vampire opened her mouth, took a breath and then closed it again with a small shake of her head.

"Ok, listen, Bon. About Finn and, well that day with the comet, he's been-"

Whatever Finn had been doing the day of the comet was very suddenly driven from both their minds as a dull _boom!_ overhead caused sugary plaster dust to shake loose from the ceiling and set both women racing back upstairs in panic.

"That was coming from Phoebe's room!" Marceline yelled as she streaked ahead. Bonnie was running at full tilt behind her but there wasn't any realistic chance that she'd keep up with the vampire so next second Marcy caught hold of her arm and swung her up onto her shoulders, transforming into her giant bat form as she went. A couple of breathless seconds later they crashed through Phoebe's bedroom door and Marceline pulled up hard, almost falling out of the air in shock. The entire room was blazing fiercely with almost white-hot flame and their daughter was desperately trying to recall all of it under her Shield. She looked up in horror when the door burst open to reveal her parents.

"Mom! Mama! It's not what it looks like, I had an accident, I-"

But Marceline wasn't listening to her daughter's panicked explanation. She was focussing down into her vampiric energy, reaching for the glacial chill that had replaced her living warmth so many centuries earlier. Suddenly the furious white flames were wreathed in Marceline's own cold blue fire; Phoebe yelled in momentary pain and the rest of the heat snapped back into her body automatically.

"Mom! That hurt!"

I'm sorry, Firefly. But you were about to melt your Mama and burn down the palace! What were you doing?"

Phoebe hung her head and muttered to her feet, ashamed. She'd always owned up to a lie when confronted about it. Marceline's sensitive vampire hearing picked up every word but for the benefit of Bonnie who looked like she was a couple of seconds away from fainting Marcy reached out and tilted their daughter's chin up until they were eye to eye.

"Again, loud enough for everyone to hear please." Marceline prompted. Phoebe huffed and tried to avoid her eyes but it was no use.

"I was trying to see if I could push my flames out past myself and still keep the shield intact but it snapped back and they went crazy."

"Grounded." Bonnie said firmly. "I can't begin to tell you how disappointed we are in you. After we were so careful to keep you safe! Your shield is not a toy, Phoebe. So you're grounded until I say so. I'll have a breakfast tray sent up and you may come out this evening to see the puppies but until nightfall you do not leave this room, young lady. Are we clear?"

"Mama! You can't ground me, I'm almost eighteen!" Phoebe wailed in horror. "Mom! Tell her!"

" _Almost_ eighteen. Not actually eighteen yet, not of age and still behaving like a much younger child. And playing with your flames like this... Firefly, I thought you were the sensible one. You've really let me down. We'll see you in the evening." Marceline replied sadly before turning away.

Phoebe watched furiously as they closed her bedroom door with an audible click. She counted a hundred angry breaths until her Mama's footsteps had finally disappeared back down the stairs before flinging her window open and whistling for Garm. The huge fire wolf came bounding joyfully around the corner of the building and Phoebe leaped gracefully from the window sill to land on her pet's broad back. They seriously expected her to wait in her room like a good girl? Queen Marceline and Queen Bubblegum, the two most badass women in the whole of Ooo, who'd raised her to think for herself and question authority, who refused to be bound by convention or the opinions of others? As they raced away through the town and out towards the grasslands Phoebe considered that if they didn't know she was going to sneak out then they were both much less intelligent than she'd previously thought.

...

Marceline turned from the study window with a sigh.

"Our daughter just rode off on her fire wolf. I'm pretty surprised you ever thought she'd do anything else."

"I knew she'd sneak out. How many times have we tried to keep her locked up now? And how many times has it worked?" Bonnie replied distractedly. She was frowning down at a pile of paperwork, signing important documents and replying to messages from their allied kingdoms. Marceline helped herself to a few from the top of the pile and began adding her own signature, earning a swift smile of gratitude from her wife. And that was where Jake found them a few hours later.

"Um. Mama? Mom? Do you have a second to talk?" he asked quietly from the study doorway.

"Sure, Pup. What's on your mind?" Marcy asked before she looked up. Of course she'd known he wasn't alone, she'd counted seven individual heartbeats while they'd still been coming down the hall. Lady was there too along with all five puppies cradled lovingly in their father's arms. Bonnie looked up too, frowning when she caught sight of the bags in the hall behind her son.

"Jake? What is this?" she asked, standing and coming forwards. He shuffled back a little nervously.

"We were talking, um, me and Lady. And, uh, we're gonna move in to Lady's place in the grasslands. You know, for the pups. Cause, uh, the palace is great and everything but we were thinking, we'd kinda like a little of our own space and maybe have the kids grow up somewhere a little less... royal. Um, Mama? Is that... ok?"

For a long moment Bonnie just stood staring at him, face frozen and lips parted as though she was about to speak. Then she shook her head, disbelieving.

"No. No, Jake, you can't move out. This has been your home since you were a puppy, it's not safe out there."

"Mama, I'm a grown man now. I have a wife and a family, we're gonna raise our kids in the grasslands."

"But you're the Crown Prince!"

"And you're immortal. Mama, we both know I'll never be the king. And that's ok, I don't wanna be. I just wanna be Jake, a Dad and an adventurer and a hero, a loving son and husband. Isn't that enough?" he asked quietly.

"But... Jake! You can't leave!" Bonnie tried desperately. "Jakey! Come on, don't do this!"

"I'm sorry, Mama. But I think it's best for my kids. You understand trying to do your best as a parent at least, right?"

He turned away and his Mama reached out for him, fingers just brushing against his shoulder as he made to leave.

"Jake! No! I forbid it!" she shouted to his retreating back.

"I'm not one of your subjects, Mama. You can't order me around. I'm an adult. And I have five kids to raise the way I think is right. So forbid it all you want but you can't keep me here. You're welcome to come visit whenever you want. But we can't stay in the palace."

Jake strode away with Lady swirling along by his side; for one second Marceline thought Bonnie was going to accept he was speaking wisdom and let him go. But she hadn't forgotten Joshua's words from so many years earlier;

 _"Just try to see it from her point of view, she's sensitive and very used to getting her own way."_

"Never a truer word spoken, Joshua." Marceline murmured to herself as she watched her wife sprint after their son and his family.

Bonnie caught up with them just as Lady was wrenching open the main doors leading to the courtyard. Marceline hung back, away from the dangerous sunlight that spilled in.

"Jacob Dog Abadeer! If you step out that door don't you ever think of coming back!" Bonnie shouted desperately.

He turned and looked at her, shaking his head sadly.

"You don't mean that, Mama. Come visit us some time. I'll miss you."

"Jake." Bonnie's voice cracked as he turned back to the doorway and followed his wife into the sun. TV looked back at them over his father's shoulder and waved a little sadly; Bonnie waved back and next second she'd flung herself into her wife's arms and was sobbing against her shoulder.

"Shh, hey come on, babe. We always knew this day would come." Marcy soothed.

"Did we? I didn't! He's my baby, my son! And it's so dangerous out there!" Bonnie replied once she'd mastered her sobs a little.

"And he's all grown up and wants to find his own way. I get that."

"Is that why you didn't stop him? Because you think he's making the right choice?"

"Because it's his choice to make, babe. Because he's an adult and he needs to make his own mistakes." Marceline replied softly.

She gathered her wife up into a hug and floated them both up off the floor and back towards their private rooms. Bonnie's scent had already changed subtly, taking on the familiar sharp notes of one of her stress migraines beginning to build. Marceline would put her to bed, finish her paperwork for the day and make sure Bonnie had everything she needed. And once night fell she'd follow Jake down to Lady's grasslands house and check that they had everything they needed too. And not once would she wish that anyone was checking that she had what she needed because that wasn't how it worked. But when she floated out of the bedroom an hour later after helping her wife to undress and climb back into bed it was to find Finn waiting for her in the corridor with a mug of red hibiscus tea and one of his rare and much treasured hugs.

"Jake's gone." he said quietly once his mother had finished sucking the warmth and colour from the drink.

"I know. That's why your Mama's in bed." Marceline replied equally softly.

"I can't believe he'd just leave! And Mama's sick and it's _his_ fault. I'm ashamed to call him my brother." Finn said with a scowl.

"He's doing the best for his family."

"We're his family!"

"And we'll be right here waiting when he wants to see us again. Won't we, Finn?"

He sighed and shrugged, staring down into the depths of what was now nothing more than a mug of chilled water.

"Finn?" Marceline prompted again. "He's your big brother. He loves you, he loves us all. We just gotta let him have his space for a while. Yeah?"

"Sure. I'm gonna go see if Olgar wants to spar." Finn replied instead. He shrugged his mother's concerned hand off his shoulder and turned away from her. The betrayed cast to his face told Marceline that it would take more than soft words and logic from her for him to fully forgive Jake. But what could she do? Jake was her eldest son, he deserved to live wherever he chose now that he was a married father of five and not a little puppy anymore. And Finn was still underage, still so often a boy rather than a man and he saw the world in strict black and white. Jake had hurt Bonnie and left the palace so Jake was now his brother's enemy. It tore a hole in Marceline's heart to think of her boys being at odds with each other when they'd been so close as children. But she knew that forgiveness was something Finn would have to come to on his own; she couldn't talk him around. Sometimes he was so much like Bonnie, so terribly stubborn. Marceline sighed again and watched her son slouching away from her, wondering if their family would ever be the same again.

...

Jake, Lady and the pups had settled into their new house pretty well by the time Marceline knocked on their door. She'd helped hang the curtains, played with her grandchildren for a while and filled in Jake on how everyone was taking it at the palace. He wasn't surprised to hear that Finn was mad at him but Phoebe was sympathetic. His sister was at home looking after Bonnie; the moment she'd slipped around the courtyard gates Marcy had cornered her and sent her up to her mother's bedroom. She'd spared a second to frown disapprovingly at Garm slinking away; the fire wolf had bared her teeth and Marceline retaliated by transforming her face to the snarling she-wolf and growling back. Garm had whimpered and disappeared with her tail between her legs. Of course all would be forgiven by the time she got home, Marcy thought. Garm would be eagerly nudging her hands for ear rubs and flopping onto her back to have her belly petted.

There was the promise of summer in the night air as the vampire flew home; the breeze that streamed her hair out behind her into an inky banner held the scent of new grass growing and spring flowers beginning to bud. Summer was still months away, they were barely into spring, but summer always meant good things to Marceline. It was Phoebe's birthday in a few weeks and later in the year it would be Finn's, it was nights on the roof stargazing with Bonnie and this year they were throwing Firefly's coming-of-age ball and then Finn would be an adult too and they'd have whatever kind of party he wanted. Hopefully Jake and Bonnie would have made up before then, it wouldn't be the same without him there.

As Marceline touched down on their balcony she immediately knew Bonnie was no longer in the bedroom. The heartbeat she knew best of anyone in the world was missing and the room was dark and cool. But Bonnie had been weak from pain when Marcy had left, she'd been sleeping and it was now very late. She checked the en suite but Bonnie wasn't there; Marceline hurried out into the dark hall and away down the corridor only to stop dead at the doorway of Jake's empty room. Her wife was sitting on the bare mattress of his bed, hugging the blue baby blanket he'd come to them with and apparently forgotten in his rush to leave. The tears were spilling silently down Bonnie's cheeks and she didn't resist at all when Marceline tugged her into a tight hug.

"He's really gone." Bonnie sobbed quietly.

"He's not far away. And the kids love the place, I helped them finish setting everything up." Her wife replied.

"I can't believe he's just gone."

"And he's hurt that you fought, he doesn't understand why you want him to stay."

"He's my son! My baby! And it's dangerous out there, anything could happen. I can't keep him safe, I can't-"

"And that's exactly why he left, babe. He's an adult now. He wants to keep himself safe, raise his kids the way he and his wife think is right. Wouldn't you have freaked out if I'd wanted us to move in with Daddy when our three were small?" Marcy asked.

"I... but that's different. Your father is Evil."

"He's also my family. He's the only father I'll ever have. He loves the kids, he loves us, he loved my Mom. Just because his job description is Evil doesn't mean he can't be a hands on grandparent, right? And just because Jake doesn't live with us doesn't mean he's gonna stop you seeing the pups. Bon, Jake adores you. He's just finding his own way right now. And he's never gonna stop needing his mother. But right now he also needs you to give him the space to spread his wings, figure out who he wants to be. Can you let him have that space?"

Bonnie didn't reply for so long that Marceline thought she maybe didn't know what to say. But eventually she became aware that the slender warm shoulders pulled up against her chest and the pink face resting on her shoulder had stopped shaking with tears quite so badly.

"You know what? Jake isn't the only one who's grown up." Bonnie finally whispered. "You're finally beginning to sound like you might be older than nineteen."

"I'm finally beginning to feel it. But you've grown and changed too, Bon. We both have. You can't raise three tiny adorable people into such fine and wonderful adults without it changing you, too. And I'm pretty proud of who we've become."

"I love you. More than ever, I love you more and more every day." Bonnie breathed. She lifted her head and pressed a slow, tender kiss against her wife's lips.

"I love you too. Come to bed, babe. When you feel well enough you can start working out how to apologise to Jake. But for now you gotta rest and get well. Come on, the world and all its troubles will still be here waiting for you in the morning." Marcy replied with a small smile.

They drifted back up the corridor to their bedroom still arm in arm; maybe not looking a day older than they had when they'd met centuries earlier but each irrevocably changed by their experiences since. As Bonnie lay down in bed and automatically slipped her arms around her wife's waist she considered she'd have to slightly adjust her definition of 'immortal'. Immortal meant without natural death. It meant without age. But it didn't mean without change, and perhaps that was the most fascinating part. Tomorrow, she'd fix it all tomorrow. Or at least as soon as she could bring herself to face Jake again. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Soon. She was immortal, she had all the time in the world and she could change. Bonnibel fell asleep in her wife's cool arms more soothed and at peace than she had been all day, knowing the world and all its troubles would still be waiting for her in the morning.


End file.
